ST. LOUIS, Missouri — U.S. Rep. Cori Bush (D-Missouri) offered a fresh explanation for her decision to put her partner, Cortney Merritts, on campaign payroll.
"We couldn't pay the big costs for security like some of my colleagues are able to do, and so we went with what we could afford," Bush said during a Wednesday night appearance on MSNBC's 'The Reid Out' with Joy Ann Reid. "There were a lot of issues with us retaining, just good, good staff."
Bush was responding to new reports that her campaign's security expenses to her husband have become the subject of a criminal investigation in the Department of Justice.
"It worked out for a while, but then we started having call-offs," Bush explained. "You know, people just, just not showing up to work. People sleeping on the job. And so it was very hard for me to have security when it was unreliable."
Security guards regularly travel with Bush to public events. They often wear dark clothes and earpieces and stand guard at prominent locations near the stage or around the perimeter of a crowd. Merritts often accompanies her or trails behind her through crowded areas, but also roams freely through the crowd and greets friends and supporters while other paid security stand guard.
"And so what was happening was, Cortney would fill in," Bush told Reid. "He would volunteer, and sometimes he would even, you know, even when he was there and they were working, he would say, 'Hey, you should be standing over here. You should be doing that.' And so he was volunteering a lot of his time. And then we had someone who was kind of leading the group, leading the team, who could no longer do it one day. Just called and said, 'I won't be back for three months.' Right? It left me in a position. There was no way I could manage a security team, plus the work that I was doing. And so he was able to pick up that slack."
Merritts, a veteran of the U.S. Army, previously worked in a security role at Ameren, though public records do not show he has a current security license in the city of St. Louis. Some municipalities in Missouri require private security guards to obtain a license in order to work in that capacity.
According to a policy posted on the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department's website, working as a private security guard with "an expired license or no license subjects you to arrest and booking."
Neither Bush nor Merritts have been charged with any crime. She is also under related investigations by the Federal Elections Commission and the House Committee on Ethics. A separate ethics investigation by the Office of Congressional Ethics dismissed the underlying complaint without recommending any disciplinary action.
Campaign finance records filed with the FEC show Bush's campaign has paid Merritts a total of $105,209.59 between January of 2022 and September of 2023. Her financial paperwork for the fourth quarter of 2023 is due to be filed before a Wednesday night deadline.
In April of 2023, not long after the couple filed their marriage papers, bi-weekly $2,500 payments to Merritts no longer appeared under the category "security." The campaign started listing his payments as "wages."
During a brief statement to news cameras on Tuesday, Bush insisted she's never used federal government money to pay her husband, which would be against the law. Congressional finance records from Bush's office do not include any security expenses.
During her interview on Wednesday night, Bush detailed a number of threats of violence she has received during her public protests and campaigns for office.
"Prior to me entering Congress, I had had a lot of threats on my life," she said. "I had even had times where I was... There were actual attempts made, and I went to social media to talk about them because I didn't feel safe going anywhere else.
"I would talk about what was happening to me on social media, even turning into the FBI at one point, just making a document that there are actual threats on my life, attempts on my life."
During her cable news appearance, Bush again reiterated her personal financial situation wouldn't permit her to pay for private security, so she relied on her campaign fund to cover the expenses instead.
"But even before I into Congress, during orientation, I went to the House and talked about like, 'Hey, this is what I'm experiencing now. Is there a way for you all to keep me safe in Congress?'"
Some of the blowback she's received has come from other members of Congress, including remarks from U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) on Tuesday, which Bush described as a "dog whistle," and "racism at its best."
"She doesn't even support the police," Nehls told reporters on Tuesday. "But the idea to pay her thug money to try to help protect her? This and that. For what? Maybe if she won't be so loud all the time, maybe she won't be getting threats."
Bush called Nehls' remarks, "Absolutely ignorant, anti-Black, racist and sexist tropes by a sitting member of Congress who is a colleague."
Pressed by reporters to explain if he felt she deserved the threats she received, Nehls said no, but then suggested she shouldn't speak out as much.
"What I'm saying is that when you're out there talking the way she does, I'm surprised that people are probably pretty upset because she's a pretty radical," Nehls said. "She's pretty radical. And maybe she should tone it out a little bit."
"To tell me that I'm being too loud? Me advocating for Saint Louis is... I'm being too loud? How about if you were to fix the issues that Saint Louis has? I would have to talk about it," Bush replied. "I wouldn't have to fuss about it. But yes, I'm going to be loud. And that's okay. If I want to be loud, if I want to be quiet, that's my prerogative."
Bush also responded to the growing movement to oust her from her seat over her criticism of the Israeli government's bombardment in Gaza. She began her calls for a ceasefire on Oct. 7, the day Hamas carried out a surprise attack against civilians in Israel.
Later that month, St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell entered the primary race to challenge her and took direct aim at her policy stance on the Israel-Hamas war.
"We're not afraid of the opposition that will pop up its head because we made principled policy stances," Bush said. "We are here to do what's right, what's necessary, not what's easy. We're not here to appease big dollar donors. We're here to do what the people sent us here to do."
"I've had this same principle stance for years," Bush said. "So I won on it in 2021, again in 2022. The thing is this: free Palestine. The thing is: we need a cease fire now. And that's not going to change."
Reid noted that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) had already endorsed another incumbent Democrat who was facing a similar primary challenge over her stance on the war in Gaza, and asked Bush why she hasn't been endorsed by Jeffries.
"Well, we haven't asked for the endorsement yet," Bush responded. "We're still working on that. My race is in August. Hers is a lot earlier than that."
Earlier on Wednesday, St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones suggested that she may consider endorsing Bell's primary challenge to Bush's re-election bid, though she hasn't officially begun her endorsement process yet.
"We have a process on my campaign side that we use," the mayor said. "So we interview all of the candidates who are running after filing closes. So I'll be having individual conversations with Wesley Bell, Cori Bush, and whoever else decides to throw their hat in the ring."
Jones, who was an avid supporter of Bush during her first two successful races in 2020 and 2022, did not make an appearance at Bush's campaign launch over the weekend, and on Wednesday, when given the chance, she did not commit to back her again for a third term.
"We'll see," Jones said. "We'll see what happens. We'll see how those conversations go."