The Squad’s Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), who told detractors to “suck it up” after she was caught using campaign funds to pay for personal security while calling to defund police, has found the love—or leech—of her life. Bush just married Cortney Merritts, who received $60,000 to provide Bush with security in 2022 even though he didn’t have the required license.
Fox News reported on Feb. 28 that, according to campaign finance records, Bush paid PEACE Security $225,281.80 for personal protection in 2022. But even more hypocritically, the “defund police” activist paid her now-husband Merritts $60,000 in a series of $2,500 checks, not to mention $2,359.59 for gas and travel (another man named Nathaniel Davis also received $50,000). Fox said Merritts is not licensed in either Washington, D.C. or St. Louis (which includes Bush’s congressional district) based on a public records request with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and a confirmation of licensed security guards from D.C.’s Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection.
A “Sunshine Law administrator said there are ‘no responsive records’ relative to the request, and Merritts does not have a current license,” Fox said. The administrator added that the “last security license issued to that individual expired in 2012.” The St. Louis Metropolitan PD website clearly states, “With the exception of St. Louis Police Officers, all persons performing a security function in the City of St. Louis must be licensed to do so through the Private Security Section.” So Merritts apparently received $60,000 from his now-wife’s campaign to do a job he was legally not allowed to do.
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Bush’s fellow Squad member Ilhan Omar also funneled large amounts of cash to a spouse—specifically, her now-husband’s consulting firm, Fox said.
Merritts’ nauseating Twitter bio says, “Father and protector of two beautiful daughters. Army Vet. East St Louis born and raised. Black Lives Matter. ✊🏽Speak the truth, even when your voice shakes.” Merritts does not seem to have acknowledged his marriage on his Twitter. He did tweet a video of himself on Jan. 3 with the comment, “I’m at the Capitol offering to help Kevin McCarthy move his sh** out of the Speaker’s office and back into his own. 😂😂.” Fox said Merritts is the owner of Vetted Movers, based on LinkedIn.
After St. Louis’ KSDK reported Bush’s wedding Sunday, her chief of staff, Abbas Alawieh, confirmed in a Feb. 27 statement that the congresswoman had married Merritts and that the two have been together since before Bush took office. Alawieh gushed that Bush had “married the love of her life, Courtney Merritts, this month.” Alawieh called Merritts an Army veteran and “security professional.”
Even before Bush started payouts to Merritts, she was criticized in 2021 for her spending on personal security while calling to defund the police. Her justification was, essentially, “I’m valuable, unlike the rest of you peasants, so put up and shut up.” To quote her exact words: “They would rather I die? You would rather me die? Is that what you want to see? You want to see me die? You know, because that could be the alternative.”
She added, “I have had attempts on my life. And I have too much work to do.” And she ended, “So suck it up, and defunding the police has to happen.”
Maybe Bush should start by defunding her unlicensed security guard husband.
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