CLAY: If you haven’t heard these clips, Cori Bush is the one who was on the steps of the Capitol. She has been in favor of defunding the police. On July 4th she said America was an awful, racist country. You need to hear this. This is an interview with CBS News. Here is Congresswoman Cori Bush.

BUSH: And we’re also talking about the same exact people who say horrible things about me, who lie to get — to — to build up their base. And because they will lie about me, I receive death threats! Now, they don’t address the fact that I receive deaths threats after they’ve gone on air and say horrible things about me. But then they want to say, “Oh, but she wants… She needs private security.”

I have private security because my body is worth being on this planet right now. I have private security because they — the white supremacist, racist narrative that they drive into this country. The fact that they don’t care that this black woman that has put her life on the line… They can’t match my energy, first of all. This black woman (sputtering) who puts her life on the line, they don’t care that my… that I could be taken outta here. They actually probably are okay with that.

BUCK: I want my body to stay on this earth too.

CLAY: Yeah. I think everybody’s in favor of their body on the earth. Yeah.

BUCK: I can understand that part of it, for sure. Clay, here’s the issue with Cori Bush. (chuckles) On a number of levels, there are questions that this raises. One is: So there are still people… ’cause Democrats will pretend like this is not the case. There are still elected officials who say that they mean defund the police.

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: It’s not some slogan that they use to get attention or anything else. They actually mean defund the police, and they cling to that, even though we’ve had now over a year of real numbers in every major American city showing that when you not only defund police as a matter of finances, but you refuse to continue to give law enforcement the backing they need to do their jobs appropriately…

When law enforcement feels like at any point in time, they could risk their careers, perhaps even their freedom for having to make a difficult but good-faith decision, it results in very bad things happening — more murders, more shootings, more violent crime in major cities. But then also this idea that Cori Bush is special, and she says she’s under so much threat. I think that a very small percentage of the country knows who Congresswoman Cori Bush is.

CLAY: God. (chuckling) Minuscule. How many white supremacists…? Let’s pretend that this is the bogeyman, right? Let’s pretend… This reminds me a little bit of Jussie Smollett, yes? And to your credit and my credit, we were some of the people who said, “Come on. This doesn’t pass the smell test.” Nobody knows —

BUCK: I did a podcast titled “Jussie Smollett is lying” before the footage came out of the two guys buying the rope and the stuff in the store.

CLAY: (laughing) Yeah.

BUCK: So, yeah.

CLAY: Yeah. You were on the very front edge of this is stupid. Even when this story happened, I remember turning to my wife and saying, “No white supremacists sit around and watch Empire, first of all. Let’s start here. Second, if they do watch Empire, they certainly don’t know what Jussie Smollett is, and they certainly don’t know that he’s racist.”

All of these things. Cori Bush… Let me be clear about this. If you are one of these people who’s running around on social media making death threats or threatening violence, I do think you should be prosecuted, ’cause we have to set the precedent that online life should be treated in some way similarly to real life. You can’t just walk up —

BUCK: It is illegal to threaten to kill somebody, and it should be, by the way.

CLAY: And you should be prosecuted.

BUCK: I even also always say that anybody who wishes harm on someone they’ve never met —

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: — in any capacity, people that celebrate when someone dies —

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: — or when someone they disagree with gets cancer, to me it’s a sign of a deep not only moral failing, but emotional and psychological instability. I actually worry about the fitness to handle day-to-day life of anybody who says, “Oh, this politician or this pundit or whatever just died or has cancer or had a heart attack, so I’m gonna celebrate that online.” Those people? They’re sick in the head.

CLAY: Yes, and you should be prosecuted if you threaten to kill someone. But there is a difference between random losers on Twitter or wherever sending a message and someone actually putting you in danger such that you need to have a security detail.

BUCK: She referred attempts on her life, by the way. That’s a very specific thing.

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: That’s someone actually… I am not aware of that having happened. If that has happened, we should know about it, that would be a major news story because it would be an attempt on the life all of federal official, a member of Congress. We should know. But, Clay, I think we all know what’s really going on here, which is that she’s coming up with some story to try to make it seem like what’s not happening here is…

And it is what is happening. You have another person who wants to make sure they feel safe with resources put around them, men with guns (and women) to protect them while the rest of American society — in poor neighborhoods that have higher crime rates — are supposed to say, “Yeah, but this is all for the cause. We’re all suffering the crime.” By the way, you look at minority communities in cities like Detroit, specifically when they’re polled, and they completely reject this crap.

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: This is top down from the elites. No matter what, you know, ethnicity you come from, you want you, your family, your communities to be safe. It’s this mentality of the elites and the activists that somehow dispenses with this because it makes them feel good when they go on TV. It’s virtue signaling.

CLAY: You want more cops. You want more cops if you are a minority living in an inner city neighborhood. That’s what all the numbers reflect. Now, so that was Cori Bush talking about how, again, unbelievable quote, “I have private security because my body is worth being on this planet right now.” Ostensibly what she’s saying is other people’s bodies are not, because they can’t afford their own private security.

BUCK: I think your body is worth being on this planet.

CLAY: Thank you. I feel the same about you and many of our listeners, maybe even all of them. (laughing) Let’s go in. Here she is furthermore saying, “Well, yes, we need to defund the police,” but she needs private security because would she rather they die?

BUSH: And defunding the police has to happen! We need to defund the police that and put that money into social safety nets because we’re trying to save lives. What other — what other occupation can do work that’s out of their scope and still be propped up to do work that’s out of their scope? As a nurse, I can’t be the surgeon too! You don’t want me being your surgeon and I’m the nurse.

At what point… Do we pay police to be social workers? No, we don’t. How do they get to be social workers? So what I’m saying is, you do your job. Let the people who are… (sputtering) who, uh, have gone to school with a particular skill set do theirs. Neither the… Defunding the police and being able to have security because — becuase those same folks are causing it? Two totally different things.

BUCK: If I’m gonna take her analogy and play it out a little bit which —

CLAY: (laughing) Oh my God.

BUCK: Yeah — and, by the way, Nancy Pelosi is heaping praise upon Cori Bush being a hero for her protest, sleeping out on the steps of the Capitol. All over social media, MSNBC, “Oh, my gosh. Cori Bush. Amazing.” What she’s actually advocating for, if we’re gonna take her, “I’m a nurse; I’m not the surgeon.” Okay. Fair enough. The people that want to defund the police are saying…

They’re walking to the hospital, and they’re saying… Sometimes surgeons, Clay, make mistakes, and they cut where they shouldn’t and somebody could bleed out on the table. So let’s fire all the surgeons and let the nurses handle whatever comes afterwards. That’s what defund the police would actually be. But if we’re gonna take her analogy to its logical conclusion, we could see how illogical and absurd the whole thing is. But I think it’s important we all know: This has not been abandoned!

CLAY: Let the nurses do it by themselves? First of all, I don’t know what percentage of Congress men and women are truly idiots. I’m very confident that Cori Bush —

BUCK: It’s more than zero.

CLAY: Yeah, it’s more than zero. And, by the way, Democrats and Republicans, right? There are dumb people in both parties. Cori Bush is… That analogy, Buck, you’re even being, I think, too generous to her. That would be like not letting the nurse because at least the nurse has some training in how to respond to let’s a say gunshot wound.

It would be like saying, “Hey, hospitals made mistakes. Let’s eliminate all the hospitals and everybody just go to a random house when you need a doctor and let whoever’s there treat you. They’ll do good as good of a job.” When you defund the police, you’re trying to sweep them all off the streets and do away with them completely. We still have another cut from her that is even dumber.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

BUCK: One more Cori Bush. She’s a member of Congress, and she just had a big win with the eviction moratorium extension.

CLAY: They listen to this woman.

BUCK: They listen to this woman. Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer. She just had a big push. She moved the Democrat Party to rally behind the extension of the eviction moratorium. Unconstitutional, yes. Marxist, yes. But she got her way. So she’s in the news this week for that reason. But also she’s got private security, and she’s a very vocal defund the police person. And here’s the kind of stuff that she says about it.

BUSH: They would rather I die? You would rather me die? Is that what you want to see? You want to see me die? You know, because there could be the alternative. So either I spend $70,000 on private s-s-security over the last few months and I’m here standing with (sputters) here standing now and able to speak, able to help save 11 million people from being evicted, or I could possibly have a death attempt on my life.

BUCK: This is the new standard we’re gonna start seeing. First of all, of course, no one wishes any harm on any member of Congress or any politician or any public figure. Any person with any decent, morality doesn’t.

CLAY: We’re all antimurder.

BUCK: Exactly!

CLAY: Be straightforward and clear. No one is in favor of untimely death by violent measures. (laughing) Anyone who is in favor of murder —

BUCK: We’re not afraid to upset the constituencies out there that does not respect human life, okay?

CLAY: Yes. That’s right.

BUCK: We stand firmly and strongly against them in every way we possibly can. But this is such a dishonest way of setting up a debate. It’s a way… It’s saying, “Oh, look at me! I’m under threat, and therefore,” let’s get down to what this is really about, “It’s not hypocritical that I pay for private security,” she’s saying, “’cause I need it so badly.”

CLAY: That’s right.

BUCK: Well, a lot of people would like to have security. It’s not even just the police issue. Democrats don’t want you to be able to arm yourself. If you gave me… If I was living right now — and I live in Midtown Manhattan, which does actually have some crime issues these days. But if you gave me the choice right now between a 20% increase in police presence in my neighborhood where I live, or the ability to conceal carry?

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: Not even close. Not even a second’s hesitation, I’d want to be able to conceal carry. Of course, I live in New York and I’m not super fancy and rich. So I’m not allowed to conceal carry. But that’s… If you gave me my druthers, that would be my move. Democrats want to prevent you from doing that and they want to prevent you from having police to protect your neighborhood.