(Headline USA) Embattled “Squad” Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., hesitated to call Hamas a terrorist organization this week.
Bush has been one of the most outspoken critics of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza following Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre last year, in which some 1,200 mostly Jewish citizens of Israel were brutally slaughtered while going about their daily lives.
Asked about her views by the New York Times ahead of a tight primary election on Tuesday, Bush refused to denounce Hamas in clear terms.
“We were called terrorists during Ferguson,” Bush said, making reference to the violent and destructive riots during the Obama administration that followed the 2014 death of shoplifter Michael Brown as he was preparing to charge toward police.
“Have they hurt people? Absolutely,” Bush said, appearing to minimize the brutality of the Hamas ambush before drawing a false equivalence to its victim. “Has the Israeli military hurt people? Absolutely.”
Hamas is widely known to use its own citizens as human shields, setting up its bases of operation in or near schools, hospitals and other locations where collateral damage will be maximized.
Bush then proceeded to claim ignorance as her justification for avoiding a rush to judgment on the Palestinian terrorist syndicate.
“Would they qualify to me as a terrorist organization? Yes. But do I know that? Absolutely not,” she said.
“I have no communication with them,” she continued. “All I know is that we were considered terrorists, we were considered black identity extremists, and all we were doing was trying to get peace. I’m not trying to compare us, but that taught me to be careful about labeling if I don’t know.”
Bush’s spokesperson tried to walk back the leftist congresswoman’s comments in a follow-up statement, insisting that she does know that Hamas is a terrorist organization but believes the “terrorist” label has been “weaponized by the far-right consistently to justify violence and, in this instance, the collective punishment of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.”
Last year, Bush was one of the only lawmakers to vote against a resolution barring Hamas and anyone who participated in the Oct. 7 attack from the U.S.
Her virulently anti-Israel rhetoric has resulted in a tight primary race between Bush and her challenger Wesley Bell, a local prosecutor who has run as the centrist candidate.
In an effort to save her campaign, the other “Squad” representatives held a virtual rally on Monday night, urging progressive voters in Missouri to turn out in support for her.
