What A Day - Missouri Congresswoman Cori Bush Is Fighting To Keep Her Seat

Episode Date: August 5, 2024

St. Louis, Missouri, residents will vote on Tuesday in one of the most expensive Democratic primaries of the 2024 election cycle. The Congresswoman who represents the city, Cori Bush, has been a harsh critic of Israel's response to the Hamas attacks on October 7 and the U.S. government's support for Israeli military operations. Her stance has led the pro-Israel group AIPAC to spend millions of dollars to back her opponent. We spoke to Nicholas Wu, who covers Congress for Politico, to learn more.And in headlines: Justice Neil Gorsuch weighs in on Biden's proposed Supreme Court reforms, Israeli airstrike kills 30 in Gaza shelter, Trump refuses to debate VP Harris unless it's on Fox News, and Team USA wins big over the weekend at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Show Notes:Check out Nicholas Wu's story – https://tinyurl.com/47a64a4fSubscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

It's Monday, August 5th. I'm Traevel Anderson. And I'm Josie Duffy Rice. And this is What A Day, where we regret to inform you that a worm ate the part of RFK Jr.'s brain that should have told him not to put a dead bear in Central Park. There is simply too much going on here, but the bottom line is RFK Jr. admitted on Sunday that he planted a dead bear cub in Central Park in 2014. This sounds like a mad lip, and I have no further questions. On today's show, the back and forth over when or even if there will be a Harris-Trump presidential debate continues,

plus the games we spent the weekend watching from the Paris Olympics. But first, Missouri voters head to the polls Tuesday to vote in the state primary elections. For voters in the St. Louis area, they'll cast ballots in one of the most expensive Democratic primaries we've seen so far this election cycle, over the seat currently held by Congresswoman Cori Bush. Bush has been in office since 2020 when she ousted 10-term incumbent Lacey Clay in a major primary upset that year. She's the first Black woman to represent the state of Missouri. She's also a progressive and a member of the squad. The squad, of course, have been some of the Israeli government's harshest critics in Congress. And they're at the center of this big debate within the Democratic Party over support for

Israel's war in Gaza. Cori Bush is no exception. Just as Israel began its military response to October 7th, when Hamas killed more than 1,000 Israelis and took more than 200 hostage, Bush introduced a resolution urging the Biden administration to call for a ceasefire. That is part of why she is now in trouble heading into her primary this Tuesday. Nicholas Wu covers Congress for Politico

and has been covering the race. Her advocacy for a ceasefire and some of the positions he's taken on Israel have led the pro-Israel group AIPAC to spend millions of dollars against her in her primary. Wu says that AIPAC and other pro-Israel groups are backing Bush's opponent, St. Louis prosecuting attorney Wesley Bell, who is also Black and also running as a progressive, albeit one with a softer stance on Israel. He entered the race against Bush about a week after she introduced her ceasefire resolution. I asked Wu to tell us more about both Bush and Bell. Both of them came out of a very similar political moment. Around the time of Ferguson, Cori Bush was this frontline activist. Wesley Bell was eventually elected to Ferguson City Council and then primaried the prosecutor for his handling

of that case. And so, you know, the way in which both of them talk about their legacy and their background has become a major flashpoint in this congressional race. Because other than the Israel Hamas question, there aren't really that many policy differences between the two candidates. And so we see both of them trying to run on their records and go after each other's backgrounds over their years in public service so far. So Bell is running on his record as a prosecutor. And as you just mentioned, this district is where 10 years ago, almost to the day, Michael Brown was shot and killed by a police officer. How is that still shaping the race now, a decade later? It's become part of Cori Bush's closing argument in the race.

Her final campaign ad features Michael Brown Sr. saying that Wesley Bell lied to them. He never brought charges against the killer. He never walked the streets of Ferguson with me. He failed to reform the office. He used my family for power, and now he's trying to sell out St. Louis. This is something Wesley Bell very strongly denies. He told me that the evidence just wasn't there to bring a case, and it's not something that the DOJ had been able to do either. And so this is, you know, it's something that we see playing out in

this very traumatic, very painful aftermath of this case. And it's especially poignant in this district, which is very diverse, but also very racially divided in a lot of ways. Bell is heavily backed by pro-Israel groups, especially the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. That group, Super PAC, has spent more than $8 million on this race to try to unseat Bush over her criticism of the Israeli government and support for a ceasefire. So can you tell us how all that money is factoring into this race? So this is many magnitudes larger than what's normally spent on a congressional race, let alone a primary in a safe seat.

This is a lot of money here. And what was particularly interesting was that most, if not all, of the ads that APAC and pro-Israel groups were funding in this race don't actually talk about Israel or the war at all. Almost all of them either boost Bell and his record or go after Cori Bush and her record as a legislator, particularly her vote against the infrastructure bill a few years ago. She voted no on the bill that has put thousands of us to work here in St. Louis. She fights with Biden. She

votes against our jobs. She gets nothing for us. The central case against her from Bell and his allies is that she's not an effective legislator. And that is his central case for change. So now Bush is kind of like the underdog in a way. I guess they're both kind of underdogs in a way. But she's really fighting for her life as the incumbent. And so how is she trying to counter these attacks from Bell? How is she kind of fighting this influx of money? Like, what's her strategy here? So she can count on some outside support from groups like the Working Families Party,

Justice Democrats, and the Progressive Caucuses PAC. But the amount of money they're able to spend, it pales in comparison to the millions that have been put into this race by pro-Israel groups and the like. So what Bush and her allies are trying to do is trying to mobilize their base, their supporters, and out-organize Wesley Bell and his allies. The question is whether or not that will be enough on election day when they've been outspent by so much in this race. What does that look like? Door knocking, more kind of voter contact versus TV ads and radio ads? Right.

They can't possibly afford to match the level of TV advertising. I mean, I noticed watching local TV for a couple hours in St. Louis, you couldn't escape any of the Wesley Bell ads. But Cori Bush's strategy is to work with her local supporters. I was there when the mayor of St. Louis was out canvassing for her. The House Mayoralty Whip, Catherine Clark, was just in town to do some events with Cori Bush. And so she's trying to mobilize as many of her supporters as possible to go vote, which ultimately, in these sorts of very low turnout elections, is what matters. And this race has been repeatedly compared to the New York primary race in June between progressive incumbent Jamal Bowman and county executive George Latimer.

Like the Bush-Bell race, it was also a race between like squad member who won a seat in 2020 and a local centrist Democrat. Also a lot of AIPAC money. Bowman, the progressive, ultimately lost that primary. But do you think Bush has a better chance? Do you see any kind of major differences here that might help Bush in a way that Bowman didn't have? Most handicappers I talked to saw Bush as having slightly better odds than Bowman, just because the demographics of the district are different. But the ideological lines of this race are also much different than the Bowman-Lattimer race. Westchester County Executive Latimer ran as more of a moderate compared to Jamal Bowman. Wesley Bell talks about himself as a progressive, and there's not a lot of policy daylight between the two. And so the playbook that was run against Bowman is the same one that's being run against Bush.

The question is whether or not this will have the same effect on Election Day. My last question is just what about the fact that Vice President Kamala Harris is now the party's presumptive nominee for president? She's obviously not on the ballot on Tuesday, but do you think this momentum around her is going to hurt or help Bush in any way? Or do you think it doesn't really matter? I think it could be somewhat of a wash because a lot of Bell's case against Cori Bush was that she was not an effective ally of the Biden administration. Obviously, with Biden no longer at the top of the ticket, that might make a difference.

But at the same time, it's still the Biden-Harris administration. At the same time, Cori Bush's allies, for their part, have been saying that perhaps with Vice President Harris at the top of the ticket, this could be some sort of moment for introspection in the party about how they handle Black women running for office. And so there's a lot of interesting dynamics at play in this race, and we'll see how it all shakes out very soon. That was my conversation with Nicholas Wu. He covers Congress for Politico. Thank you for that, Josie. That's the latest for now. We'll get to some headlines in a moment, but if you like our show make sure to subscribe and share it with your friends. We'll be back

after some ads. Now let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. Let's start with some news from the Middle East. Tensions continue to escalate after the Israeli military conducted an airstrike on a school in Gaza City yesterday where Palestinians had been sheltering. 30 people were killed and dozens were injured, most of whom were women and children, according to the Palestinian civil defense. The Israeli military claimed that the airstrike targeted, quote, terrorists and Hamas command and control centers. Though the New York Times says it was not clear if any Hamas militants were killed. The attack is the latest of several similar airstrikes which have targeted schools

and shelters where Palestinians have fled after their homes were destroyed. That attack comes in the wake of the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week, which has put ceasefire negotiations at risk as Hamas urgently tries to choose a new leader. Israel has not claimed responsibility for Haniyeh's death. Last week, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for, quote, severe retaliation against Israel for the assassination. And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that Israel is, quote, determined to stand against them on every front and every arena far and near. And that, quote, their open aggression is insatiable.

Several airlines, including Delta and United, have suspended flights to and from Israel in anticipation of retaliatory attacks, stranding tens of thousands of Israelis outside of the country. Feel free to send a big check to Justice Neil Gorsuch because he seems to think that the ethics code proposed by President Joe Biden that would ban gifts is a bad idea. Gorsuch was asked on Fox News Sunday about Biden's proposals, which also include term limits for justices. He declined to share his opinion in detail, but he did imply that the reforms could jeopardize judicial independence in an answer that concluded like this. And so I just say, be careful. Interesting there. Gorsuch was on Fox to promote his new book,

Overruled, The Human Toll of Too Much Law. In it, he lays out his belief that an excess of laws and regulations are impinging on American liberties. Some would argue that a 6-3 conservative court that's addicted to taking away liberties is also part of the problem. That's part of the problem. That's part of the problem. The little threat. Be careful.

I don't like that. Didn't sound too good, Josie. I'm not a fan. Mm-mm. And the drama over presidential debates continues. After Donald Trump backed out of the September 10th debate on ABC, he suggested a September 4th debate on Fox News in front of a live arena audience instead of the studio setting of previously scheduled debates.

The Harris campaign released a statement saying Trump is, quote, running scared and going to Fox News to, quote, bail him out. Harris said at a rally last week. Well, Donald. I do hope you'll reconsider to meet me on the debate stage. Because as the saying goes, if you've got something to say, say it to my face. All right, Howard University. Look, that was an Atlanta rally and we were born for that moment, I must say.

Donald Trump posted on True Social on Saturday that he would see Kamala Harris, quote, on September 4th, where I won't see her at all. Like, we had a date, boo. He said at his rally. They want to do another one. You know, we're doing one with Fox if she shows up. I don't think she's going to show up. She can't talk. She can read a teleprompter. I'd give her about a six on a scale of 10, six. For talking, I'd give her less than a one. I feel like if it was less than a one, you wouldn't show up to the debate, but. Right.

What do I know? And we will wrap up with some of Team USA's weekend achievements at the Paris Olympic Games. Katie Ledecky took gold in the 800-meter freestyle on Saturday, 12 years to the day after she won the same event in her 2012 Olympic debut. Ledecky now has nine Olympic gold medals, which is more than any American woman in history. Also on Saturday, Simone Biles competed in the vault and nailed a move named after her, the Biles 2 or the Yurchenko Double Pike. Biles' performance resulted in her third gold medal of this year's Games, and she still has two more events scheduled for today.

And on the track, Sha'Carri Richardson won a silver medal in the 100-meter sprint after a positive test for marijuana blocked her from competing in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Even though marijuana isn't like known for making you go faster, so it feels like that ban was unreasonable personally. Richardson finished behind Julianne Alfred, who earned the first ever Olympic medal for her country of St. Lucia. And lastly, American Noah Lyles won the 100 meter sprint on Sunday. When the race ended, the scoreboard showed that both he and Jamaica's Kuschein Thompson finished in 9.79 seconds, but close inspection showed that Lyles had beaten Thompson by five thousandths of a second, which is a fraction of the time it takes to blink. This is one of those times, Josie,

where that term photo finish comes into play. But I think it takes me longer than five thousandths divided by 20 seconds to blink is what I just want for up there. I'm counting. Okay. Let's do an experiment. Let's do an experiment.

We got a hypothesis. We'll report back. We'll report back. A little scientific method. And those are the headlines. One more thing before we go. Looks like 13 is your lucky number, Los Angeles. 13 new Love It or Leave It shows live in LA just dropped from September through December.

Each week, host John Lovett is joined live on stage by killer comedians, politicians, and queers to help break down the latest in politics and culture. Come see Love It or Leave It live on stage every Thursday, where you will laugh and most likely cry together. Grab your tickets now at crooked.com slash events. Also, special note, heads up, in support of the Crooked Media Workers Union one-day walkout, we are not publishing an episode of What A Day on Tuesday. We will be back on Wednesday. That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, win something by a fraction of a blink, and tell your friends to listen.

And if you're into reading and not just proposals that would take away gifted yacht vacations for Supreme Court justices like me, what it is also a nightly newsletter, so check it out and subscribe at Cricut.com slash subscribe. I'm Josie Duffy Rice. I'm Trey Bell Anderson. And put that bear down, RFK Jr.com slash subscribe. I'm Josie Duffy Rice. I'm Trey Bell Anderson. And put that bear down, RFK Jr. Relax. Yeah. Like, how did you get the bear

into your possession in the first place? That's my question. I have so many questions about that, man, that I hope I never learn the answer. But I have them. I do have them. We don't want the answers for real, for real. Well, today is a production of Crooked Media.

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