Sanders Calls AZ Dem Party’s Decision to Censure Sinema ‘Exactly Right’
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is praising the Arizona Democratic Party for censuring Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) over her decision to defend the filibuster. When NBC’s “Meet The Press,” host Chuck Todd noted that Sinema…
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is praising the Arizona Democratic Party for censuring Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) over her decision to defend the filibuster.
When NBC’s “Meet The Press,” host Chuck Todd noted that Sinema was censured, Sanders said, “Good.”
Todd then asked Sanders if he thought the vote was an “appropriate action.”
The Vermont senator said, “Yeah, I do. I think that’s exactly right.”
“On that issue of voting rights, this is something that’s almost different than anything else. What that is, is that right now you have a Republican Party under Trump’s leadership that is perpetuating this ‘Big Lie’ that Trump actually won the election, and therefore, you have 19 Republican states that are moving very aggressively into voter suppression, into extreme gerrymandering,” he continued.
Sanders added, “They are moving in a very, very anti-democratic way. And it was absolutely imperative that we change the rules so that we could pass strong voting rights legislation. All Republicans voted against us, two Democrats voted against us. That was a terrible, terrible vote. And I think what the Arizona Democratic Party did was exactly right.”
Watch the video below:
On Wednesday night, Sinema and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) voted against a Democratic push to change the filibuster so they could advance voting rights legislation with just 51 votes.
The Arizona Democratic Party voted on Saturday to censure Sinema over her stance on the filibuster.
“On the matter of the filibuster and the urgency to protect voting rights, we have been crystal clear. In the choice between an archaic legislative norm and protecting Arizonans’ right to vote, we choose the latter, and we always will,” the party’s chairwoman, Raquel Teran, said in a statement.
She continued, “While we take no pleasure in this announcement, the ADP Executive Board has decided to formally censure Senator Sinema as a result of her failure to do whatever it takes to ensure the health of our democracy.”