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“U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema said Monday that activists who confronted her outside an Arizona State University classroom and filmed her inside a restroom were not engaging in ‘legitimate protest.’…
“When asked about the incidents, President Joe Biden… agreed they weren’t the best strategies. ‘I don’t think they’re appropriate tactics, but it happens to everybody… the only people it doesn’t happen to are people who have Secret Service standing around them,’ Biden said. ‘So, it’s -- it’s part of the process.’” AP News
Here’s our previous coverage of Senators Manchin and Sinema and the Democrats’ legislative strategy. The Flip Side
The right condemns the bathroom incident, and accuses the media of bias in its coverage of the incident and of Sinema in general.
“If, instead of a left-winger berating a moderate Democrat in the loo, a right-winger had berated a moderate Republican, it would have been the biggest news of the year…
“I can hear the rhetoric now. Change a handful of inconvenient details, and this incident would be cast as an attack on ‘women,’ on ‘the LGBT community,’ and on ‘our democracy itself.’ Put the motivating criticisms in the mouth of Tucker Carlson, instead of Chris Hayes, and the episode would be widely held as ‘the logical endpoint of the climate of hatred that has been whipped up.’ Attribute the passion to a MAGA type instead of a progressive, and it would be said to ‘evoke the painful memories of January 6.’…
“Throughout the Trump years, journalists who claimed that they were concerned with the maintenance of political decorum took to intoning ‘This. Is. Not Normal’ whenever news of a fresh departure crossed the transom. Today, with Trump out [of] office and the Democratic Party fully in charge of D.C., we are watching as progressive activists corner senators in their commodes, surround legislators’ boats with kayaks, and organize the harassment of sitting Supreme Court justices. Did they mean it? Or did they just want the space cleared for themselves?”
Charles C. W. Cooke, National Review
“Sinema isn't even a Republican. She's simply the sort of centrist Democrat that Biden used to pretend to be, and not even collegial Uncle Joe can muster an unequivocal and forceful condemnation of activists crossing an obvious line of basic human decency. The green light has been given to activists to escalate the force they use and the signal to the opposition clearly sent: Republican women, you're up next.”
Tiana Lowe, Washington Examiner
“As much as Democrats might resent [Manchin], he doesn’t seem to rankle them as much as the senior senator from Arizona. Maybe it’s because, as Mr. Manchin recently noted, he’s ‘never been a liberal’ and no one was ever under any illusion he was. By contrast, Ms. Sinema started out on the left, with roots in the Green Party and anti-Iraq War activism. As a legislator, however, she’s proved herself willing to work across the aisle…
“[She] knows Arizona is not a progressive state, notwithstanding that it went narrowly for Mr. Biden in 2020 and last year sent another Democrat, Mark Kelly, to the Senate. Perhaps Ms. Sinema is positioning herself to keep her seat when she’s up for election again in 2024 even if the state reverts to voting Republican…
“In the same way that [the late Arizona Senator] John McCain was hailed as a principled independent for voting against key Republican priorities—including providing the decisive vote against repeal of ObamaCare—if Ms. Sinema ends up tanking the reconciliation bill, those covering the story ought at least to have the grace to recognize there really is a new maverick in town.”
William McGurn, Wall Street Journal
The left generally condemns the bathroom incident, and criticizes Sinema for obstructing the Democratic agenda.
The left generally condemns the bathroom incident, and criticizes Sinema for obstructing the Democratic agenda.
“Despite the blurring of the lines between public and private life, a line still does exist. And following someone into the bathroom and filming their stall is over the line. It just is. Common decency dictates that we let people go to the bathroom with the reasonable expectation of privacy. This video was clearly a violation of Sinema's privacy…
“Unfortunately, as long as we reward behavior like this -- and 4.7 million views is plenty of a reward, not to mention all of the publicity this episode has attracted -- the more we encourage it. And this is simply not the sort of thing that, societally, we should stand for.”
Chris Cillizza, CNN
“During the 2016 convention, a delegate from Utah reported that Trump supporters harassed her in a bathroom and wished death upon her over an effort to force a roll-call vote on Trump’s nomination. As recently as 2018, a long-shot GOP congressional candidate videotaped herself confronting a transgender woman in a bathroom as the woman was in a stall… And there are plenty of other allegations of confrontations in bathrooms over transgender rights — particularly as states have pursued so-called ‘bathroom bills.’…
“The point isn’t that what happened to Sinema is okay; it’s that the efforts to pretend this is a unique affliction of the political left or that the reaction to the same thing happening on the right would dominate the media involves some real tunnel vision.”
Aaron Blake, Washington Post
Some argue, “Aggressive protest tactics like the one that so incensed Sinema tend to be a symptom of a much larger problem. When people are shut out of a supposedly democratic process, they have no choice but to agitate. The Senate is a broken institution, one that is hidebound by archaic rules like the filibuster. It is an increasingly expensive proposition to run for office at all, which keeps the Senate in the hands of those who can afford to be there…
“Activists aren’t wrong to think that democracy is in decline — and that it is threatened, further, by elected officials like Sinema, who attend expensive fundraising dinners while holding up bills their donors despise. That anger is valid, and it has to have somewhere to go. There are options that don’t involve a bathroom stall, but, frankly, there aren’t many, and time is short. If you’re feeling outrage, reserve the largest share for Sinema.”
Sarah Jones, New York Magazine
“‘She wants herself viewed as John McCain’s heir. McCain had a reputation about standing up to his party and all that,’ says a senior national Democrat who has worked closely with Sinema. ‘But McCain, you knew what his values were. You never had to question what his vision was for the country. And you really can’t answer that question for Kyrsten.’… [Unlike Manchin] Sinema has not publicly defined her red lines… Even Democrats who know her say they aren’t sure what she’s after besides a patina of bipartisanship.”
Charlotte Alter, Time
