Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., on Monday appeared to poke fun at Senate Democrats for coming out in support of the filibuster after her former party had called for it to be abolished over the past four years to push through Democratic agenda items.
Sinema, who left the Democratic Party nearly two years ago, responded on the social media platform X to a report by the Washington Examiner citing Democratic senators who now say they support the Senate filibuster to block President-elect Trump’s agenda in his second administration.
“Please, please, please stop what you’re doing and read these quotes,” Sinema said.
“Filing under: schadenfreude,” she continued.
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Senator Kyrsten Sinema, an independent from Arizona, during an interview on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, May 18, 2023. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Sinema and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who has also left the party to become an independent, were the two then-Democrats who opposed eliminating the filibuster during the Biden administration when Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., attempted to abolish it in 2022, although he was unsuccessful without the support of Sinema and Manchin in a razor-thin majority for Democrats.
Both independent senators did not run for re-election and will be leaving the Senate in January.
In August, Schumer told the New York Post that Sinema and Manchin are “both gone” in 2025 when asked if he would make another attempt to eliminate the filibuster.
After the election, Schumer pleaded with Republicans to prioritize bipartisanship.
“I offer a word of caution in good faith: Take care not to misread the will of the people, and do not abandon the need for bipartisanship,” Schumer said.
Earlier this month, Sinama responded to Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., who said she would not support eliminating the filibuster now that the GOP will control the House, Senate and White House, but would have supported it if Democrats had the trifecta.
“You don’t say?” Sinema wrote on X.
The report from the Washington Examiner quotes several Senate Democrats, including Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill; Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii; Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who all expressed support for maintaining the filibuster to halt Trump-backed legislation.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema speaks alongside Sen. Chris Murphy with reporters in the U.S. Capitol Building on December 20, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“I’d be lying if I said we’d be in a better position without the filibuster,” Blumenthal said. “We have a responsibility to stop autocratic and long-headed abuse of power or policy, and we’ll use whatever tools we have available. We’re not going to fight this battle with one hand tied behind our back.”
Durbin said he views the filibuster as “part of the calculation” on how Democrats will resist Republican bills in the next Congress in which the GOP will hold a 53-47 majority in the Upper Chamber.
“We had to live with it when we were in the majority,” he said.
Schatz said: “I’m going to try not to make a mess of my position on this one.”
The Hawaii democrat previously slammed the “unprecedented abuse of the filibuster by Republicans” during the Obama administration as he backed reforms.
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Sen. Kyrsten Sinema speaks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol on February 5, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
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“You play with the rules that exist,” Murphy said, adding that he is open to changes but not to “obliterate” the filibuster, which he criticized in 2021 as “downright dangerous,” a “slap in the face to majoritarianism” and an “argument that essentially prioritizes consistency over democracy.”
Incoming Senate GOP Leader John Thune, R-S.D., recently said that the filibuster will be “safe under Republican control,” even if it blocks Trump’s agenda.
“I find it ironic that a party that has spent a fair amount of time this election cycle talking about the importance of preserving our democracy seems intent on embracing the thoroughly undemocratic notion that only one party should be making decisions in this country,” Thune said.
