Congresswoman Cheri Bustos of Rock Island is a twit and there is plenty of video evidence.* Pictured centered below is Bustos during President Trump’s Feb. 28th speech to Congress assembled, the first for the new president.
Because Bustos sat on the aisle seat demarking Democrats from Republicans and about halfway down the aisle, she was often in camera shot. While she wore white like many of the Democrat women congresspersons (Nancy Pelosi and Elizabeth Warren did not get the memo) she, like the rest, forswore the matching pointed hood that once was . he uniform of the day of so many Democrats, . Thus she was fairly easy to find in the video sequences we examined.
In the picture above you see her with eyes down appearing to be texting if not gaming on a cell phone. Our estimation is that she was on that thing a lot during the first half of the speech and probably more. Most Democrats, perhaps no other, was as boorish in that way. We suppose she might have been helping a gravely ill constituent or family member in some timely way, but we sort of doubt it.
This link contains a CNN transcript of President Trump’s address. And here is a link to the New York Times video of the speech. The formal delivery lasted an hour and ten seconds. We reviewed both for research purposes and made note of when the camera(s) panned the audience, keeping an eye out for Bustos. Of course the camera for the greatest part was kept focused on Trump and his delivery.
As best we can determine when the camera panned the audience during the first half of the Trump speech, Bustos did not seem to have her head angled up nearly as much as other Democrats nor was she animated to any extent. She was not shown standing at any point in that first half. Her only appreciation of anything said by Trump as regards an issue that we could see from the intermittent pans was at about the 42 minute 15 second point of the speech where she stood in support of men and women in law enforcement (her husband is in law enforcement). She also appears to be standing at the 47’50” mark with the mention of increased funding for veterans (a safe stand).
Bustos did not seem to stand in support of increased military spending in spite of representing many arsenal employees (separate from veterans increases) nor during the crowd pan when Trump promised to do something about the high price of drugs (about the 34′ 10″ mark) where she still appears to be texting. That was halfway through the speech. She stood, as appeared to be true of most everyone, in response to introductions of some of the guests, or at least the introduction of Carryn Owens, widow of slain Navy Seal William Owens.
Reports indicate few Democrats ever applauded even politely except on isolated occasions. Bustos seemed bored and anxious to leave.
R Mall
*Eugene Mattecheck Jr provided the heads up and the link to the PJ Media still picture shown
Where does one think Madame Congressperson Bustos learned when to rise, when to doze, what some of the president’s big words meant, how to show most disrespect, etc.?
Our suspicion is that Maxine Waters, the reigning “queen of disrespect’, who was ‘unable’ to attend, was on the other end of the line mentoring and helping Cheri understand what was going on.