Attorney General Keith Ellison plans to participate in a campaign event later this week with two of the loudest voices for the “defund the police” movement.
Throughout the campaign, Ellison has claimed he never supported the movement. However, he did support a Minneapolis charter amendment that would have abolished the Minneapolis Police Department and replaced it with a “department of public safety.”
That amendment was overwhelmingly rejected by voters in the deep-blue Minneapolis.
Now, Reps. Ilhan Omar and Cori Bush are planning to campaign with Ellison this Friday at the University of Minnesota. Omar explicitly endorsed the “defund the police” movement in 2020 and said “we need to completely dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department.”
She then doubled down on those comments in an interview with CNN, saying “you can’t really reform a department that is rotten to the root.”
Omar also endorsed the Minneapolis charter amendment and nearly lost her primary in August to a pro-police challenger.
Rep. Bush is still pushing the defund the police narrative and went on Good Morning America earlier this month to double down.
“We can’t get caught up on the words,” she said. “People spend more time focusing on the word ‘defund’ than they spend on caring and addressing the problem of police violence in this country.”
“Are you worried at all that [saying "Defund the Police"] could hurt some of your colleagues going into the midterm elections?"
Democrat Rep. Cori Bush: "We can't get caught up on the words"
pic.twitter.com/k2T3nbYGHy— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) October 4, 2022
Earlier this year, she told Axios she wasn’t going to stop using the “defund the police” slogan ahead of the midterms.
Recently, it was reported that Bush’s campaign has spent nearly $500,000 in campaign funds on private security this election cycle, according to the New York Post.
“I’m going to make sure I have security because I know I have had attempts on my life and I have too much work to do,” Bush said in an interview last year. “So, suck it up, and defunding the police has to happen. We need to defund the police and put that money into social safety nets because we’re trying to save lives.”
Jim Schultz released a tweet about the upcoming event, saying “Keith Ellison lied to Minnesotans at last night’s debate.”
“And now he is hosting an event with the two biggest defund advocates in America,” he said. “It is time for a change!”
Alexander Henderson
Alexander Henderson is a freelance writer with a background in management and a degree in business finance.
