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Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) has been in the hot seat since the day she was sworn into office over her radical stances on, among other things, defunding the police.

Unlike some Democrats whose version of defunding the police means a reallocation of a certain percentage of their normal funding, Bush literally believes in defunding them and abolishing private prisons along with it.

Bush, though, has repeatedly been called out for paying for private security using hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign funds to do so even as she advocates for starving off police funding that would make communities including the ones she claims to want to protect more vulnerable to violent crime.

In August 2021, she utterly embarrassed herself and caused headaches for members of her party when she said during an interview that she didn’t care if it made her look like a hypocrite:

“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. There are too many people that need help right now for me to allow that. So if I end up spending $200,000, if I spend ten more dollars on it, you know what? I get to be here, to do the work. 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.”

Cori Bush: I’m going to make sure I have private security but defunding the police needs to happen. pic.twitter.com/6jbv4HLlGs

— Mike Berg (@MikeKBerg) August 5, 2021

As it turns out, Bush was getting another perk out of hiring private security officers, as we learned Sunday when it was reported that she married one of them earlier this month in St. Louis in what was described as a “private ceremony”:

Bush got hitched in a private ceremony in St. Louis last weekend, according to sources. Marriage records filed with the St. Louis Recorder of Deeds show Bush signed her marriage license in a pact with Cortney Merritts on Feb. 11, a few days before their wedding.

Merritts, a veteran of the U.S. Army, has worked for Bush’s campaign as a hired security guard. Campaign finance records show the Bush campaign has paid him $62,359 in direct payments in 2022. Most of the payments were listed for security services, while $2,359 of them were for cash reimbursements.

Merritts’ social media posts show he traveled with Bush on her trips to her first inauguration in January 2021, to the Ed Sullivan Theater for her appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” and to Central America on a trip with a Congressional delegation.

The first direct campaign payments to Merritts were reported in 2022 after their relationship began.

According to Breitbart News, “the payments could potentially interest the FEC and the Congressional Ethics Office, which prohibits campaign funds for personal use, but the law does give some leeway for family members who perform a ‘bona fide service.'”

Whatever the case may be, though I have numerous disagreements with Bush on politics I sincerely hope she finds happiness in her marriage, because the amount of anger, rage, and bitterness she openly carries around and displays is not good for anyone, and maybe a little happiness might make her think differently on some things.

On the other hand, thoughts and prayers to her new spouse for the winding road ahead…just sayin’.

Flashback: Cori Bush Steps on a Rake in Contemptuous Attack on Byron Donalds