Tipsheet

Does John Kirby Not Know Who Cori Bush Is?

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  October 31, 2023 7:30 PM

Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) has certainly been causing quite the amount of chatter lately for her take on the Israel-Hamas war. Like other members of the Squad, she's been demanding a ceasefire. But, she's been doing so from a particularly anti-Israel perspective. On Sunday, from her official account, she claimed in a repost that Israel was involved in an "ethnic cleansing campaign." The situation became even wilder when NSC Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby discussed the congresswoman's claims with CNN's Dana Bash.

On Tuesday, Bash read Bush's post, in the context of discussing how it's "dividing [President Joe Biden's] Democratic Party. As Bash mentioned, Bush's post also claimed that the United States is "funding these atrocities against Palestinians," and noted they "must stop" doing so.

"As a key spokesperson for the Biden administration, what's the administration's argument to this Democratic about why, I'm sure you believe, she's wrong," Bash asked, being clear with the pronouns menioned that Bush is, in fact, a human female.

"Well, the congressman can speak for himself and his views, obviously we would take significant issue with those assertions," Kirby said in response. Yikes. Such a response would suggest that Kirby doesn't even know who Bush is, despite her being a vocal member of the president's own party, although she's particularly at odds with him in his support for Israel.

But, even if it was a male member of Congress that Bash and Kirby were talking about, the response Kirby gave is not exactly a firm denouncement of these false claims propagated by anti-Israeli voices.

Recommended

These Democratic Senators Could Sure Be in Trouble After Voting for Sanders' Anti-Israel Resolutions Rebecca Downs
The Forever-Tarnished Legacy of Barack Obama Jeff Davidson

For all of his faults, Kirby has been firm in reminding the press not to trust Hamas when it comes to how they're not trusting numbers of civilian deaths when it comes from Hamas, also reminding that civilians, tragically, will die, and that it is a fact of war. In a way, then, it almost makes his response about Bush that much more bizarre.

As Townhall covered on Monday, Bush has also earned a primary challenger from prosecutor Wesley Bell. In taking questions during his announcement on Monday that he was switching from challenging Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), to run against Bush in a Democratic primary, Bell gave a much more firm defense of Israel, including when it comes to support for the Iron dome, which Bush has voted against.

Bush continued to post about Israel on Tuesday from her official X account. This included quoted reposts in reponse to AIPAC and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), the latter who used a post from Ben Smith to highlight how Community Notes had initially come for Bush promoting a ceasefire through one of the resolutions she co-sponsored. 

In a resolution signed onto with other members of the Squad, Bush demanded a ceasefire, but did so without calling out or even mentioning Hamas, as the Community Notes pointed out.

While Bush spoke to another resolution from Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) she had signed onto with far more members of Congress, it's worth noting that Bush's original post from Monday receiving all of the attention did not specify which resolution she was speaking about.