{"id":41178,"date":"2025-05-08T13:28:32","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T20:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=41178"},"modified":"2025-05-08T13:28:33","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T20:28:33","slug":"cori-bush-aipac-didnt-make-me-so-aipac-cant-break-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/05\/08\/cori-bush-aipac-didnt-make-me-so-aipac-cant-break-me\/","title":{"rendered":"CORI BUSH: \u2018AIPAC DIDN\u2019T MAKE ME, SO AIPAC CAN\u2019T BREAK ME\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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POSTED INPOLITICS AND MOVEMENTS: US<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After speaking at the 2025 National Membership Meeting of Jewish Voice for Peace in Baltimore, former Congresswoman Cori Bush sat down with TRNN to discuss her re-election loss, the undue influence of organizations like AIPAC on our democracy, and her plan for fighting back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BY\u00a0MAXIMILLIAN ALVAREZ<\/a> <\/strong>MAY 6, 2025 (TheIntercept.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Congresswoman Cori Bush (left) speaks with TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez (right) at the 2025 National Membership Meeting of Jewish Voice for Peace in Baltimore, MD, on May 4, 2025. Still\/TRNN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"YouTube<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has openly vowed<\/a> to pour $100 million into campaigns to defeat progressive representatives like Cori Bush who have spoken out against Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. As Chris McGreal writes in The Guardian<\/em><\/a>, \u201cafter it played a leading role in unseating New York congressman Jamaal Bowman, another progressive Democrat who criticised the scale of Palestinian civilian deaths in Gaza\u2026 AIPAC pumped $8.5m into the race in Missouri\u2019s first congressional district to support [Wesley] Bell through its campaign funding arm, the United Democracy Project (UDP), after Bush angered some pro-Israel groups as one of the first members of Congress to call for a ceasefire after the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel.\u201d After Bush was unseated in August, she vowed to keep fighting for justice, and she put AIPAC on notice: \u201cAIPAC,\u201d she told supporters, \u201cI\u2019m coming to tear your kingdom down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the 2025 National Membership Meeting of Jewish Voice for Peace<\/a> in Baltimore, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez sits down with the former Congresswoman and key member of \u201cThe Squad\u201d to discuss her re-election loss, the undue influence of organizations like AIPAC on our democracy, and Bush\u2019s plan for fighting back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Studio Production: Kayla Rivara, Rosette Sewali
Post-Production: Cameron Granadino<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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TRANSCRIPT<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Maximillian Alvarez:  <\/strong>We\u2019re here at the Jewish Voice for Peace National Membership Meeting held in downtown Baltimore, and I am honored to be sitting here with Congresswoman Cori Bush, who just gave an incredible speech at the closing plenary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congresswoman, thank you so much for joining me. I know we only have a limited time here, and I wanted to ask, first and foremost, for our viewers out there who saw your re-election campaign be thwarted by $8.5 million from AIPAC, amidst other things, what would you say to folks out there who just see the results of that election and think, oh, well, she lost fair and square. What\u2019s really going on underneath that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cori Bush:  <\/strong>Well, thank you for the question. First of all, there was no fair, there was no square. There was deceit, manipulation, lies, misinformation, racism, bigotry, hatred, vitriol, and it was all OK. There was nothing that was off limits as long as AIPAC got the result that they wanted. They didn\u2019t care about how it ripped apart our community, how all of the years of organizing, so much of it was disrupted, and some of those bonds that people created, it completely shattered. They didn\u2019t care about that. They don\u2019t care about that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They don\u2019t care that I\u2019m the same person that some of those folks marched with out on the streets of Ferguson during the uprising in 2014 and 2015. They don\u2019t care that I am the one who protested the ending of the eviction moratorium in 2021 as a freshman out on the steps of the US Capitol to make sure that 11 million people weren\u2019t about to be evicted from their homes when the government could have done something about it. They didn\u2019t care about that. They wanted to discredit me because in discrediting someone that the people trust, then it pulls power not only from that person that they trust, but it pulls power from the people. So [the] over $8 million that they put in, plus those that they were working with, it roughly ended up being around $15 million, between $15 to $20 million, which is the numbers that we\u2019ve seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I just want to make this point. To use racism against me, to distort my face on mailers to make me look like an animal, to use lies about my family or me. The thing is this: if you\u2019re doing the right thing and you\u2019re doing it for the right reason, why can\u2019t you just use truth? I have no problem with people running against each other. We\u2019re able to do that. That\u2019s how I won my race. I ran against someone I thought was ineffective. I felt like I could do more. I spoke about what I would do and how I felt I could do it. I spoke about my past and who I wanted to be as a member of Congress. The people believed it because the people saw me as that person, and I won.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around $1.4 million. It took me that much money to unseat a 20-year incumbent whose father was in the seat for 32 years. So 52 years worth of a machine. I spent around $1.4 million to unseat. I won that race with over 4,700 votes. AIPAC and the groups that they were working with, they spent around $15 million. The person only won by less than 7,000 votes. So it took basically $15 million, 15 times the amount of money to unseat me that it took me to unseat someone who had a 52-year family legacy. So that was the depth of the deceit that they had to use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I\u2019ll say this, never once did they say anything about Israel or Palestine. Never once did they use that in ads. Now, in front of people, they would call me antisemitic. People would say, well, what did she do? Oh, well, [inaudible]. I don\u2019t have anything to show you. But what they would use in the ads was, oh, she\u2019s mean to Joe Biden. She wants kids to drink contaminated water from lead pipes. Those were the things that they used against me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And because it flooded the media, our local media so heavily because of the amount of money, because you will see four or five ads from my opponent and then only one ad from me, the people started to believe and they were wondering, well, why does he have so much money? Well, why does it\u2026?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So that\u2019s what it looked like, and that\u2019s how they were able to deceive the community to make them think, oh, well, then maybe something is going on that we don\u2019t understand. And then they also made people feel like, well, I\u2019m confused, so maybe I\u2019ll just stay home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maximillian Alvarez:  <\/strong>I want to ask another follow-up question on that because, of course, you and other members of the Squad are representative of a grassroots hope coming from a lot of the folks that we talk to and interview on a weekly basis. This is a hope over the past 10 years that there was still a possibility of making progressive change through electoral politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What would you say to folks right now who are feeling despondent, and after seeing AIPAC still, amidst all of that, unseat you, unseat Jamaal Bowman, the richest man in the world buying his way into our government right now, what would you say to folks who feel like we don\u2019t have enough to take on their money?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cori Bush:  <\/strong>Well, that\u2019s what they want us to believe. They want us to fall into this place of feeling overwhelmed, believing the chaos. They want us to stop fighting. They want us to think that\u2026 Well, they want us to live in this place of fatigue. That\u2019s why they keep ramming this train our way. But we can\u2019t allow that to happen because what they understand is it\u2019s actually the people who have the power. That\u2019s why they have to do so much and push so hard and spend so much money because they understand that it\u2019s really us who has the power. We just have to acknowledge it and understand it and figure out how to properly use our power to fight against this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so, yes, I was unseated, Jamaal Bowman was unseated, and I know that we know that they\u2019re coming for more in 2026 and beyond. But the thing is, the movement is never one person or never a few people. Yes, we were working for more progressive change, and that\u2019s an issue right now. But the other part of that is we need our actual elected officials who claim to be progressive, to actually be that. We need that, or stop saying that you are, because then you\u2019re making people feel this way because they\u2019re looking like, oh, these are our people, but what\u2019s going on? Why aren\u2019t they pushing? Why aren\u2019t they fighting for this change?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we need people to be your authentic self in this moment because the people are falling away from the Democratic Party because they feel the hypocrisy. People are saying, I don\u2019t understand why you\u2019re not fighting hard enough. You said this man is a fascist, he\u2019s a racist, he\u2019s a white supremacist, he\u2019s authoritarian, he\u2019s a dictator. He\u2019s all of these things, but you\u2019re not meeting the moment. You\u2019re not meeting the threat with the proper opposition to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when they also see that some of these same folks who are supposed to be our \u201cleaders\u201d take money from groups like AIPAC who are primarily funded by Republicans or who also endorse insurrectionist members of Congress, or people who supported insurrectionists, at least we feel, then the people are like, well, why should I believe and trust in you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, if you are cool with allowing a genocide to happen on our watch in our lifetime with our tax dollars, if you are OK with that, then what is your red line? Because, apparently, death and destruction of thousands of people, it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So who are you? Is this the party of human rights and civil rights? Is this the party of equality and equity and peace? Is this that party? It is absolutely not if there is no no real opposition to what we\u2019re seeing right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maximillian Alvarez:  <\/strong>And just a final question. When you lost your reelection and you gave this rousing speech that you brought back into your speech today, you told AIPAC, \u201cI\u2019m coming to tear down your kingdom.\u201d I wanted to ask, in closing here with the last minute I\u2019ve got you, what does that mean? What does that look like? And for folks out there watching who want to see that, who want this undue money and influence out of our politics, what is it going to take to tear down that kingdom?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cori Bush:  <\/strong>So one thing I won\u2019t do is give all the secrets away. So I can\u2019t give all of the\u2026 But what I will say is part of it is this, part of it is being here with the people. So Jewish Voice for Peace has 100% been a supporter of mine. And this didn\u2019t just start after Oct. 7. We\u2019ve been working with folks with JVP for years. This is not anything new, and we\u2019ll continue to do that work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the fact that they continue to organize, other groups are organizing and calling out the name AIPAC. There are experts working on why there is this loophole that allows for AIPAC to do some of the lobbying they do. There is a lot happening behind the scenes, and I\u2019m going to continue to do that work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the stuff that is more forward-facing, I\u2019m going to continue to organize. I\u2019m going to continue to make sure that people know. The PAC United Democracy Project is\u2026 We need people to understand the connection between them and AIPAC. So that\u2019s where the money is going to flow from. It\u2019s going to flow from UDP. We need people to know DMFI and know some of these other names, but we also need people to know that, in your local community, there are PACs being formed that are basically a smaller AIPAC, and their whole purpose is to try to be ambiguous, and so you won\u2019t know that this is who they are. It is just like, oh, it\u2019s this group that has all of this money that\u2019s coming against this elected official that\u2019s speaking out against the genocide. But they have all of this money, and so maybe they\u2019re good. We want people to know. So educating people around the country as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not going to stop fighting because AIPAC came for me. The thing is this: AIPAC didn\u2019t make me, so AIPAC can\u2019t break me. AIPAC didn\u2019t position me, so they can deposition me. The thing is, I got there because the people put me there, but I was there for a purpose and a mission. So that\u2019s the other part. So I knew while I was there in Congress that I was on a timer. I knew that I was only there for a purpose, for a mission. I knew that there was this urgency on the inside of me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing that I would say to people all the time is I felt this weeping. Only inside of me, I always felt like crying. It never stopped, 24 hours a day. And it\u2019s the thing that kept me moving fast. Like, OK, I got to do this. I got to do that. People in Congress will say, she\u2019s championed all of these different areas. Why is she doing so much? That was why. I didn\u2019t know that I would only be there four years, but I needed to get the work done, and I needed to be true to what I said, who I said I would be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But also, I needed to be what I needed. That\u2019s what I had to be what I needed when I was unhoused, when I was hungry, when I was abused, and all of the things. I needed that. I needed what my grandmother needed when she taught me that you never look a white woman in her face because of what she went through, the experience in Mississippi growing up, and my ancestors before her through chattel slavery. I needed to be what they needed. And I\u2019ll never stop doing that because the thing is, it\u2019s not about me, it\u2019s who God created me to be. And that\u2019s just everything for me, and so I\u2019m not afraid.in print, under a Creative Commons license.TAGGED:<\/strong>israel<\/a>,\u00a0video<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MAXIMILLIAN ALVAREZEDITOR-IN-CHIEF<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Editor-in-Chief<\/strong>
Ten years ago, I was working 12-hour days as a warehouse temp in Southern California while my family, like millions of others, struggled to stay afloat in the wake of the Great Recession. Eventually, we lost everything, including the house I grew up in. It was in the years that followed, when hope seemed irrevocably lost and help from above seemed impossibly absent, that I realized the life-saving importance of everyday workers coming together, sharing our stories, showing our scars, and reminding one another that we are not alone. Since then, from starting the podcast Working People\u2014where I interview workers about their lives, jobs, dreams, and struggles\u2014to working as Associate Editor at the Chronicle Review and now as Editor-in-Chief at The Real News Network, I have dedicated my life to lifting up the voices and honoring the humanity of our fellow workers.
 
Email: max@therealnews.com
 
Follow: @maximillian_alv<\/a>More by Maximillian Alvarez<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

POSTED INPOLITICS AND MOVEMENTS: US After speaking at the 2025 National Membership Meeting of Jewish Voice for Peace in Baltimore, former Congresswoman Cori Bush sat down with TRNN to discuss her re-election loss, the undue influence of organizations like AIPAC on our democracy, and her plan for fighting back. BY\u00a0MAXIMILLIAN… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41178"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41178"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41179,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41178\/revisions\/41179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}