Missouri Rep. Cori Bush is taking heat for claiming white supremacists shot at her and other protesters during the racial unrest years ago in Ferguson — despite local authorities saying there’s no record of the shocking incident.
Bush (D-Mo.) shared the account Monday while commenting on the ongoing trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, who fatally shot two people and injured a third during last year’s riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
“When we marched in Ferguson, white supremacists would hide behind a hill near where Michael Brown Jr. was murdered and shoot at us,” Bush wrote on Twitter. “They never faced consequences.”
“If Kyle Rittenhouse gets acquitted, it tells them that even seven years later they still can get away with it,” she added.
But Ferguson Police Chief Frank McCall Jr. said there was no record of the incident.
“None that I’m aware of,” he told the St. Louis Dispatch when asked if there was a report about the alleged shooting.
Others who were in attendance at the protests backed up the lawmaker’s account.
“I vividly remember hiding under porches in Canfield as shots were fired at us,” Ohun Ashe wrote on Twitter. “No one came to help us. Ferguson police would be nearby. We would come from under porches using cars as shields in between gun shots to make it out.”
Critics, however, blasted Bush on Twitter over her tweet.
“@CoriBush is a sitting Congresswoman blatantly lying to the American people to stoke rioting and looting. She could not be worse if she tried,” wrote one Twitter user.
Another Twitter user added, “I too like to make up stories.”
Asked for more information about the alleged incident, a spokesperson for her re-election campaign issued a statement.
“While on the frontlines of the Ferguson Uprising, Congresswoman Bush and other activists were shot at by white supremacist vigilantes,” a spokesperson told the newspaper. “The question we need to ask is why white supremacists feel empowered to open-carry rifles, incite violence, and put Black lives at risk across our country.”
