Former Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., blasted several prominent Democratic figures for their apparent flip-flop on the use of the filibuster in recent days.
The lawmaker accused lawmakers like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and others of hypocrisy for urging Senate Democrats to filibuster the latest government spending bill, after calling for the end of the filibuster in years past.
“Change of heart on the filibuster, I see!”, Sinema commented on a news article about Ocasio-Cortez ripping Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for saying he’d relent and vote for the bill to avoid a government shutdown.
Democratic Senators voted to end the filibuster in 2022 to help pursue the Biden administration’s legislative agenda. Biden himself has referred to the legislative tool as a “relic of the Jim Crow era.”
However, Sinema and then-Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., voted against the measure at the time, causing the effort to fall apart. Both lawmakers caught heat from other Democratic lawmakers and their constituents.
Sinema, a former Democrat, spent some of her weekend targeting liberals who were demanding Democratic senators withhold their votes for the continuing resolution (CR). Senators, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and nine other Democrats, went on to vote 54-46 to pass it.
In her post against Ocasio-Cortez, the ex-Arizona lawmaker included a screenshot of Democrat’s old posts demanding an end to the filibuster so Democratic lawmakers could ram through legislation protecting Roe V. Wade.
Sinema’s rebuke caught the squad member’s attention. “Still no,” she replied. “In fact, the same Dems who argue to keep the filibuster ‘for when we need it’ do not, in fact, use it when we need it. It’s only used to block Dem policies. Never to block harmful GOP ones. Could have proved us wrong. Instead they proved the point.”
Sinema fired back, pointing out how a large portion of Democratic Senators tried to filibuster the CR though they previously supported ending the filibuster. “Literally zero Senate Democrats support the filibuster. 38 voted to filibuster the continuing resolution yesterday. 8 who previously voted to eliminate the filibuster (1/19/22) did not filibuster. 1 who previously campaigned against the filibuster did not filibuster.”
Sinema also needled Khanna, sharing an image of the 2021 Washington Post column he wrote condemning the filibuster as a response to his Friday X post saying that Schumer sold the party out by not filibustering. The former Arizona lawmaker quoted his column to ding him, writing, “’stand up for the Constitution and our democracy’ #ohlookthefilibuster.”
She ripped Jayapal as well, sharing her old post calling for the end of the filibuster in response to her demanding the Senate not capitulate to a vote on Friday. Sinema captioned the accusatory X post, stating, “Just surprised to see support for the ‘Jim Crow filibuster’ here.”
Sinema targeted former U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Robert Reich as well. The former Clinton official-turned media pundit posted on Friday, “The real choice Democrats face is not between a continuing resolution that allows the government to function normally or a government shutdown. Under the Trump regime, the government is not functioning normally. It is already shutting down. Why vote to legitimize Trump’s coup?”
The lawmaker replied with a screenshot of his 2022 post grilling her for voting to keep the filibuster. She captioned the screenshot, stating, “Glad to see you’ve joined the filibuster admiration club!”
Reps for Reich, Ocasio-Cortez, Khanna, and Jayapal did not immediately reply to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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