OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A member of the far-left congressional “squad” released her political memoir this week to dismal sales figures. Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) released the title, “The Forerunner: A Story of Pain and Perseverance in America,” but it only sold 729 copies in its first week, according to an NPD BookScan report quoted by the New York Post.
In the book’s second week, it sold an additional 288 copies for a total of 1,017.
“The publisher paid Bush — an anti-police socialist who stoked BLM riots in 2020 — an advance of at least $50,000, Bush’s financial disclosure reports show,” The Post reported. The memoir reveals the congresswoman’s life as “a minimum-wage worker, survivor of sexual violence and Black Lives Matter activist,” The Post added.
“When I wasn’t in Ferguson [MO.], I would still see armored vehicles, even when they were not there. At random moments in the day, I would smell tear gas, even when none had been sprayed,” she wrote, claiming that her time protesting there led to her developing PTSD.
Cori Bush's first week of sales for her new book was absolutely embarrassing. https://t.co/fnOGt0sk5o
— OutKick (@Outkick) October 22, 2022
Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), member of the "Squad" in Congress, sold 729 copies of her memoir ‘The Forerunner: A Story of Pain and Perseverance in America’ during the first week of sales
https://t.co/cias3DmtSa— DottieSilentNoMore (@DottieFincham) October 23, 2022
One “progressive” offered a thought as to why the book tanked.
“It’s not the book. It’s just there’s a lack of interest in her,” the unnamed progressive, who has worked with Bush, told The Post. “She just hasn’t built a strong enough brand to sell books yet.”
Last year, a claim from Bush that “white supremacists” fired at black protesters during unrest in Ferguson, Mo., in August 2014 after a white police officer shot and killed Michael Brown, a black teen, was dismissed by current and former officials with St. Louis-area city.
Ferguson Police Chief James McCall Jr. and former Ferguson Mayor James Knowles have publicly disputed the Missouri Democrat’s allegations.
“Bush was a regular presence at the protests that rocked Ferguson, Missouri, after former police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown — and Bush claimed in a tweet Monday that protesters had been targets for ‘white supremacists’ who shot at them from behind a hill while police did nothing,” The Daily Wire reported.
“When we marched in Ferguson, white supremacists would hide behind a hill near where Michael Brown Jr. was murdered and shoot at us. They never faced consequences. If Kyle Rittenhouse gets acquitted, it tells them that even 7 years later they still can get away with it,” she claimed.
When we marched in Ferguson, white supremacists would hide behind a hill near where Michael Brown Jr. was murdered and shoot at us.
They never faced consequences.
If Kyle Rittenhouse gets acquitted, it tells them that even 7 years later they still can get away with it.
— Cori Bush (@CoriBush) November 15, 2021
Bush made her remarks as the trial of teen Kyle Rittenhouse wrapped up in Kenosha, Wis. He was acquitted on charges of two counts of murder and several counts of reckless endangerment in the shooting deaths of two men and the wounding of a third Aug. 25, 2020, amid rioting and unrest in that upper Midwestern city following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a black man who was going for a knife in a vehicle at the time.
Her campaign followed up her tweet with a statement repeating the Democratic lawmaker’s claim, saying, “While on the frontlines of the Ferguson Uprising, Congresswoman Bush and other activists were shot at by white supremacist vigilantes. 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.”
However, in response to a question about the claim from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Chief McCall responded: “None that I’m aware of.”
The Daily Wire adds:
The former mayor took things a step further, telling NewsTalk STL radio host Tony Colombo – who covered the Ferguson protests on the ground — that the only shots fired during the Ferguson protests were fired at police officers or between rival gang members.
“I reached out personally to James Knowles, who was the mayor of Ferguson at that time,” Colombo said on the Tuesday program. “He called it 100% BS, what Cori Bush said.
“He said the only gunshots were people taking shots at cops and rival gangs shooting at each other, ending up with injuries at different times,” he added.
Seven months after Brown was shot, the Post-Dispatch reported:
In March 2015, two police officers who were part of a security line outside the Ferguson police headquarters were shot, causing some protesters to flee and others to drop to the ground. One officer was hit in the shoulder; the other, in the cheek.
