- Cori Bush drew a sharp contrast with Nancy Pelosi, who officiated an oil heiress's lavish wedding.
- "She's in a position of power, and that's more her lane I guess. That's where her focus is," she said.
- Bush also declined to say whether she'd back Pelosi in potential future leadership elections.
Democratic Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri drew a stark contrast between her and Nancy Pelosi when she was asked about the House Speaker's officiation of an oil heiress's glamorous San Francisco wedding earlier this month.
"My purpose is to lift up those that have been marginalized and oppressed and overlooked," the St. Louis congressman and Squad member told BuzzFeed. "And she's in a position of power, and that's more her lane I guess. That's where her focus is."
Earlier this month, Pelosi officiated the wedding ceremony for Tobias Engel and Ivy Getty at San Francisco's City Hall. Getty — the granddaughter of oil baron J. Paul Getty and an heiress to his fortune — held a glamorous and high-profile wedding where she wore a dress made of broken mirrors.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and San Francisco Mayor London Breed were also reportedly in attendance.
—Vogue Runway (@VogueRunway) November 8, 2021
That came right after the House voted to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which President Joe Biden later signed into law. Bush was one of 6 "Squad" members who voted no on the bill, preferring to see it move in tandem with the Build Back Better social spending bill that progressives have prioritized.
Bush told BuzzFeed that the day of the infrastructure vote was the "absolute worst day" she's had as a member of congress so far, telling her staff she wanted to take care of herself by staying off social media and away from the news.
"I'm Black girl broken," she reportedly texted St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones.
Of the wedding itself, Bush told Buzzfeed that she "didn't know who those people were until I saw people talking about it" and that Pelosi's participation in the lavish ceremony "didn't really move me either way."
"People see things differently than others, and I have learned to not condemn people for the way they see things when they haven't gone through the things that I've gone through," she said. "Like I can't change their experiences, the only thing that I can do is expose them to mine, or those of others that they may not know or understand."
The congresswoman also contrasted her experiences with Pelosi within the framework of race.
"I don't wear those same glasses that she wears," Bush told BuzzFeed, referring to Pelosi. "For me, I'm not a woman first, I'm Black first. I don't care about party lines the way that she does. I don't care about looking like I'm leading, or care about being the one that is staying within — like, just playing the game."
The Missouri congresswoman was first elected to the House in 2020, defeating an incumbent whose family had held the St. Louis-based seat since 1969. Bush rose to prominence as a Black Lives Matter activist in Ferguson in 2014, and her failed 2018 primary bid was the subject of a documentary, "Take Back The House," that also profiled Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's successful first campaign.
Bush also declined to say whether she would support Pelosi to lead House Democrats in future leadership elections, saying she didn't "have an answer" to that question.
Pelosi's office did not respond to Insider's request for comment, but told BuzzFeed that "the Speaker is not on a shift, she's on a mission."