Joy Reid Asks Cori Bush Softball Questions About Active Criminal Investigation into Her

MSNBC host Joy Reid asked Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) just two softball questions about the Department of Justice’s ongoing criminal investigation into her on Wednesday.

The probe is looking into whether Bush misspent campaign funds on a private security detail led by her husband. Public records show Bush spent $572,000 on security in 2022, with $60,000 going to him.

“Let’s talk about this for just a moment,” Reid told Bush on The ReidOut. “I want to start with the fact that the independent Congressional Ethics Office cleared this matter. How did it then proceed to an investigation by the DOJ?”

Bush replied:

So, what happened was there is someone who made a complaint. They sent the complaint, I believe, to the FEC, which that moves really slowly, is what I hear, and so because, you know, nothing had happened, they didn’t see any movement, they decided – there are articles about it – they decided, “Hey, I want the DoJ, I want House Ethics, I want all of these different entities to investigate now.” So they did at one time, just asked all of these different entities to investigate.

Reid questioned, “So these agencies are obliging a complaint. Let’s talk about your husband, your husband his name is Cortney Merritts. He’s a military veteran, you know he’s a military veteran, why was he the choice that you made in terms of your personal security?”

The congresswoman claimed:

So what was happening, there were a lot of issues with us retaining just good staff. What was happening, we had– you know, we couldn’t pay the big cost for security like some of my colleagues are able to do, and so we went with what we could afford. It worked out for a while, but then we started having call-offs, you know, people 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.

And so what was happening was Cortney would fill in, 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 and 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. Just one day called and said, “I won’t be back for three months.” 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.

Bush went on to praise her husband’s work, telling Reid, “Not only was he able to pick it up, he could handle all of it. I mean, he was an air assault soldier in 101st Airborne. He had already worked for other companies working security, even as supervisor, so this was in his lane.”

After her two initial questions, Reid refrained from pressing any further about the Department of Justice’s investigation, instead questioning Bush about threats she had received as a member of Congress and about Rep. Troy Nehls’ (R-TX) controversial remarks, which Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) condemned as “racist.”

In the final minutes of the interview, Reid then asked Bush about her reelection campaign, policies, and endorsements.

Watch above via MSNBC.