In one of the most recent cases, in a video that emerged on Monday, the senator was being followed by someone who claimed to be her constituent at an airport.
In the video the senator admonishes the woman by saying “don’t touch me” to which the woman responded, “I did not touch you.”
The senator continued walking and, other than that exchange, ignored the woman as she continued following her and complaining.
“Every single year in Arizona, it’s getting hotter and hotter,” the woman said. “We’re breaking records … People are suffering. Your constituents are suffering. What are you going to do about climate change?” she said and Sen. Sinema ignored her.
It comes as Sens. Sinema and Joe Manchin have placed a roadblock on Biden’s spending agenda and as reports indicated that Sinema was ignoring Biden’s phone calls this month, CNN reported.
Neither Manchin nor Sinema addressed their caucus during a lunch meeting Thursday where they talked about their plans to move the Biden agenda.
And Democrats say that’s not unusual.
“Off the charts,” one Democratic senator told CNN on Thursday when asked about the caucus’ frustration with Manchin, contending many senators privately gripe that the West Virginia Democrat takes his public stands for “publicity” reasons.
Biden himself has sounded exasperated at both Manchin and Sinema, according to Democratic lawmakers who have spoken to him. The President told progressives this week that he has spent many hours with the two senators “and they don’t move,” two sources said. Biden even contended that Sinema didn’t always return calls from the White House, the sources added.
And it has drawn the ire of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders who appears to believe that the Democrats tiny majorities give them some sort of mandate.
“2 senators cannot be allowed to defeat what 48 senators and 210 House members want. We must stand with the working families of our country. We must combat climate change. We must delay passing the Infrastructure Bill until we pass a strong Reconciliation Bill,” he said on Twitter on October 1.
His math may not be as accurate as he thinks, as 50 Republican senators and two Democrat Senators equals 52 and thus would be the majority.
And that came after Sen. Sinema was followed into a bathroom at Arizona State University by activists demanding that she help pass the Biden agenda.
“I don’t think they’re appropriate tactics, but it happens to everybody,” Biden said to reporters on Monday about the incident. “The only people it doesn’t happen to are people who have Secret Service standing around them. So it’s part of the process.”
And Sinema issued a press release addressing what happened.
“Yesterday, several individuals disrupted my class at Arizona State University. After deceptively entering a locked, secure building, these individuals filmed and publicly posted videos of my students without their permission — including footage taken of both my students and I using a restroom,” she said. “In Arizona, we love the First Amendment. We know it is vital to our democracy that constituents can freely petition, protest, or criticize my policy positions and decisions,” she said.
“The activist group that engaged in yesterday’s behavior is one that both my team and I have met with several times since I was elected to the Senate,” she continued, “and I will continue engaging with Arizonians with diverse viewpoints to help inform my work for Arizona,” the senator said.
“Yesterday’s behavior was not legitimate protest. It is unacceptable for activist organizations to instruct their members to jeopardize themselves by engaging in unlawful activities such as gaining entry to closed university buildings, disrupting learning environments, and filming students in a restroom,” she said. “In the 19 years I have been teaching at ASU, I have committed to creating a safe and intellectually challenging environment for my students. Yesterday, that environment was breached. My students were unfairly and unlawfully victimized. This is wholly inappropriate,” she said.
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