{"id":484233,"date":"2022-01-24T20:06:27","date_gmt":"2022-01-24T20:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=5fcd312111590770891c0cd785ac4876"},"modified":"2022-01-24T20:06:27","modified_gmt":"2022-01-24T20:06:27","slug":"sanders-says-arizona-democrats-decision-to-censure-sinema-was-exactly-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/01\/24\/sanders-says-arizona-democrats-decision-to-censure-sinema-was-exactly-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Sanders Says Arizona Democrats\u2019 Decision to Censure Sinema Was \u201cExactly Right\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Senators<\/a>

Over the weekend, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) praised the Arizona Democratic Party for censuring Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Arizona) over her obstruction of federal voting rights.<\/span><\/p>\n

In an interview on <\/span>NBC<\/span><\/i>\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press,\u201d Sanders called Sinema\u2019s vote in the Senate last week against filibuster changes to allow the passage of voting rights legislation \u201cterrible.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Certain <\/span>Republican states<\/span><\/a> \u201care moving in a very, very anti-democratic way,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was absolutely imperative that we change the rules so we could pass strong voting rights legislation. All Republicans voted against us, two Democrats voted against us \u2013 that was a terrible, terrible vote.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think what the Arizona Democratic Party did was exactly right,\u201d Sanders concluded.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last week, <\/span>Sinema and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) voted<\/span><\/a> against a proposal to enact a talking filibuster for Democrats\u2019 voting rights bill, which would allow the Senate to pass the measure with a simple majority vote. It was a last-ditch effort to protect voting rights <\/span> as <\/span>Republicans <\/span>shred them to pieces<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Arizona Democratic Party announced that it had <\/span>voted to censure Sinema<\/span><\/a> on Saturday after months of frustration with the senator\u2019s obstinate defense of the filibuster.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[T]he Arizona Democratic Party is a diverse coalition with plenty of room for policy disagreements,\u201d <\/span>party chair Raquel Ter\u00e1n said in a statement<\/span><\/a>. \u201c[H]owever on the matter of the filibuster and the urgency to protect voting rights, we have been crystal clear.\u201d Ter\u00e1n said that, while the party supports Democratic candidates, the consequences of Sinema\u2019s \u201cfailure\u201d to protect voting rights are too dire to ignore.<\/span><\/p>\n

The state party has expressed frustration over the senator\u2019s obstruction before. Last year, <\/span>it threatened<\/span><\/a> to hold a vote of \u201cno confidence\u201d for Sinema\u2019s filibuster defense, which has caused a near-absolute deadlock in the Senate over Democratic priorities.<\/span><\/p>\n

A censure is <\/span>largely a symbolic ruling<\/span><\/a> that does not carry formal consequences in this instance. However, it is a strong rebuke to Sinema, as her own party essentially rules to stand against her, and will likely fuel a primary campaign to unseat her when she\u2019s up for reelection in 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n

In October, <\/span>a poll found<\/span><\/a> that, if the election were held soon, Sinema would easily be defeated by Democratic challengers. In a head-to-head race against Ruben Gallego, an early favorite to primary the senator, Sinema loses 62 to 23 percent, according to the poll.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sanders told reporters last week that <\/span>he would be open to<\/span><\/a> supporting a candidate who ran against her. In a video posted to his Twitter, he said that it was \u201cpathetic\u201d that Sinema and Manchin would vote to obstruct voting rights during such a crucial time for the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, with Sinema and Manchin not up for reelection for another four years, Sanders is saying that it\u2019s crucial for their stances to be made clear now. In <\/span>interviews<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>an op-ed<\/span><\/a> in <\/span>CNN<\/span><\/i> last week, Sanders has made it clear that he thinks more Democratic agenda items should be put to a vote so that voters can clearly see what the conservative Democrats oppose.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFunny things happen when a bill gets to the floor,\u201d <\/span>Sanders said<\/span><\/a> on \u201cMeet the Press.\u201d \u201cLet\u2019s put a strong bill on the floor. And if Mr. Manchin and Ms. Sinema want to vote against it whatever, Republicans want to vote against it \u2013 we can go from there. But what we cannot continue to do, in my view, is these endless backroom negotiations. The American people have got to see where we are.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Latest \u2013 Truthout<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Senators<\/a><\/p>\n

Sanders has been advocating for more Democratic proposals to come to a vote in order to get senators\u2019 views on record.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1459,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4999,35921,3387,35331,6194,11802,4,1231,3668],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484233"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1459"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484233"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":484234,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484233\/revisions\/484234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}