Cori Bush explains moving her office away from Marjorie Taylor Greene as GOP congresswoman slams ‘Democrat mob’

Black congresswoman condemns far-right lawmaker’s ‘renewed, repeated antagonisation of the movement for Black lives’

Congresswoman Cori Bush has requested that her office be moved away from Marjorie Taylor Greene’s office following “renewed, repeated antagonisation of the movement for Black lives", Ms Bush said in a statement. 

Earlier on Friday, the Democrat said that Ms Greene and her staff “berated” her in a hallway and “targeted” Ms Bush and others on social media. “I'm moving my office away from hers for my team's safety,” she said.

In response, Ms Greene called Ms Bush “the leader of the St Louis Black Lives Matter terrorist mob who trespassed into a gated neighbourhood to threaten the lives” of the McCloskeys, a St Louis couple who pointed firearms at demonstrators.

She shared a video of herself equating the insurrection among white supremacists and far-right supporters of Donald Trump to overturn election results to Black Lives Matter demonstrations against police violence. A person can be heard telling her to "follow the rules and put on a mask" that she was wearing improperly.

Ms Bush, a racial justice organiser who along with Ms Green is serving her first term in the House of Representatives, said that the interaction from 13 January in a tunnel below the US Capitol followed the positive Covid-19 diagnoses of several of her House colleagues after they were sheltering with Republicans who refused to wear a mask during the riot at the Capitol on 6 January.

“Out of concern for the health of my staff, other members of Congress and their congressional staff, I repeatedly called out to her to put on a mask,” Ms Bush said in a statement. “Taylor Greene and her staff responded by berating me, with one staffer yelling, ‘Stop inciting violence with Black Lives Matter’.”

She said Ms Greene’s “renewed, repeated antagonisation of the movement for Black lives in the last month towards me personally is a cause for concern”, in addition to resurfaced comments from 2018 and 2019 in which she appeared to support the killing of Democratic officials including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as well as conspiracy theories portraying school shootings as “false flag” or “staged” events.

“All of this led to my decision to move my office,” Ms Bush said. 

Following more news reports with her past comments and her response to Ms Bush, the Republican congresswoman released a fundraising statement for her re-election campaign, invoking “President Trump”, “MAGA reinforcements" and the former president’s “America First” agenda.

Ms Taylor Greene’s “message to the radical, left-wing Democrat mob and the Fake News Media" touted her fundraising efforts and claimed that “every smear strengthens my base of support at home and across the country because people know the truth and are fed up with lies”.

She has not refuted or denied making any of her previous social media remarks or actions.

On Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slammed House Republicans for Ms Greene’s placement on the House education committee despite her apparent denial of school shootings and demeaning remarks about survivors.

“Assigning her to the education committee when she has mocked the killing of little children,” the speaker said. “When she has mocked the killing of teenagers … What could they be thinking? Or is thinking too generous of a word for what they might be doing.”

New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that GOP House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy “has a responsibility to ensure his members do not harm others.

“He is losing control of his caucus [and] allowing these threats to go unchecked, while looking the other way as members like [Ms Bush] feel so unsafe that she must move offices just [three] weeks into her [first] term,” she said on Twitter.

Shooting survivors and families as well as gun control advocacy groups and a growing body of Democratic lawmakers have demanded Ms Green resign, be expelled from Congress or be stripped of her committee assignments, as a fractured GOP determines whether to rely on Mr Trump’s volatile base of support for 2022 midterm elections or rebuild the party after losing control of the Senate and White House.

Mr McCarthy, who was fundraising and meeting with Mr Trump in Florida this week for support in 2022, will reportedly speak with Ms Greene before making any committee decisions.