by Evan Stambaugh
Despite their anti-police rhetoric, Ilhan Omar and other “Squad” members are big spenders on private security.
FEC records reviewed by Fox News show that Reps. Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, and Cori Bush spent roughly $100,000 on private security combined last financial quarter, July 1 to Sept. 30.
Bush, a Black Lives Matter activist and representative from St. Louis, Missouri, spent a whopping $64,000 alone on her security, while Minnesota’s Omar spent $22,000.
The other two “Squad” members mentioned in the Fox report did not spend anywhere close to what Bush and Omar spent. Ocasio-Cortez, the nationally recognized congresswoman from New York, spent over $10,000 on private security. Pressley, a representative from Massachusetts, spent around $4,000.
The congresswomen are well known for their radical left-wing positions on a variety of social and economic issues, even though they notoriously try to persuade the public that they only support what a majority of Americans already support.
To name just one example, their stance on “defunding the police” is far from popular. It also appears incongruent with their willingness to drop boatloads of money on private security.
For Omar’s part, she supports a charter amendment that would replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a “public safety department” that could include a limited number of “peace officers … if necessary.”
Prominent Minnesota Democrats, including Gov. Tim Walz and Sens. Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar, do not support the amendment. Omar has previously attempted to package it as a common-sense measure that would bring Minneapolis in line with other Minnesota cities and towns.
In an interview last month, Omar claimed the charter amendment would simply eliminate a requirement for a minimum number of law enforcement officers on the force. She also stated her belief that the Minneapolis City Council and mayor should have more power to “make decisions about who should respond when it comes to disturbances that do not actually require the presence of police.”
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Evan Stambaugh is a freelance writer who had previously been a sports blogger. He has a BA in theology and an MA in philosophy. In 2016 he was a volunteer, intern, and field assistant for Donald Trump’s successful presidential campaign.
