REVEALED: Congress 'Squad' members legislating to defund the police have spent up to $70,000 on their own private security
Four left-wing Congress members known as 'the Squad' are the biggest spenders on personal security despite advocating for the defunding of police, records show.
According to Federal Election Commission reports, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Cori Bush (MO) have funneled thousands into private security.
Between April 15 and June 28 this year, Bush spent more than nearly $70,000 of her campaign funds on personal security.
AOC's campaign shelled out at least $4,636 at Tullis Worldwide Protection for 'security services' between January and June.
The Virginia-based company's other clients include the royal families of both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, according to the owner's website.
Pressley spent around $7,500. In the first quarter of 2021, she spent more than $4,000 and more than $3,500 in the second quarter on security expenditures. Although a portion of her spending was local, she did hire a Virginia company in January and a Washington, D.C., firm in March.
Omar was the most frugal, spending just $2,800 in her second quarter. All of her spending was local in St. Paul and nearby Ramsey, Minnesota.
Between April 15 and June 28, Cori Bush (MO) spent more than nearly $70,000 of her campaign funds on personal security, almost $20,000 above the median household income for residents in her district
AOC (D-NY) spent less on security and more on local spending. In her first quarter, about $35,000 of Ocasio-Cortez's local spending went to firms with Brooklyn addresses, despite representing parts of the Bronx and Queens
In her first quarter of 2021, Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) spent more than $4,000 and more than $3,500 in the second quarter. Although a portion of her spending was local, she did hire a Virginia company in January and a Washington, D.C., firm in March
In her second quarter, Rep. Illhan Omar (D-MN) spent $2,800. All of her spending was local in St. Paul and nearby Ramsey, Minnesota.
Bush previously said that she will continue to spend thousands of dollars in personal security because she has feared for her life, but at the same time reiterated her call for defunding police.
'I'm going to make sure I have security because, I know, I have had attempts on my life,' Bush told CBS News in an interview outside the Capitol. 'And I have too much work to do, there are too many people that need help right now, for me to allow that.'
'So if I end up spending $200,000, if I spend $10 more on it – you know what, I get to be here to do the work,' she added.
The Squad believes defunding the police would prevent the deaths of people like Michael Brown and Breonna Taylor.
She and Presley are sponsors of the People's Response Act, which aims to transform our country's approach to public safety by creating a public safety division within the Department of Human Health and Services.
The act would provide $7.5 billion in grant funding to state and local governments, as well as community-based organizations, to fully fund public safety and improve crisis response.
Additionally, Pressley sponsored the BREATHE Act, which honors the lives of those stolen by police and state-sanctioned violence, such as Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, George Floyd and countless others.
The act allocates new money to build healthy, sustainable, and equitable communities, in addition to stripping federal resources from incarceration and policing.
Bush, along with AOC, Omar and Pressley, also supports the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which passed the House last summer.
A woman gets arrested during a 'Defund the Police' protest outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art during the MET Gala in New York on September 13
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