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Krysten Sinema: Old video threatens to derail Senator's support for filibuster

Social media says 'I can’t imagine selling my soul like she has,' after an old video emerges where Sinema says 'it's not unusual' to use reconciliation

Senator Krysten Sinema is currently facing a lot of heat for her staunch opposition to reforming the filibuster, leaving the Democrats voting rights bill dead in the Senate. She's been widely criticized by some of her colleagues, and heavily trolled on social media. But like Senator Joe Manchin, she's stuck to her guns and firmly refused to back down. It does appear though, her position is a relatively new one, as an old video from 2010 has now surfaced showing Sinema actively advocating for filibuster reform.

The video is now going viral, as the pressure piles up on the Arizona Democrat to get behind her party ahead of the crucial 2022 midterms. In fact, on more than one occasion she has been dubbed a "covert Republican" for refusing to support filibuster reform. It's not the first time Democrats have been left hanging by the Senator, who also ironically didn't support a $15 minimum wage, despite claiming she grew up in a gas station. 

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After a meeting with President Joe Biden on January 13, 2021, the Senator bluntly refused to budge, telling the press, "While I continue to support these (voting rights) bills, I will not support separate actions that worsen the underlying disease of division infecting our country." But as the video shows, she was a very different person back in 2010.

'Democrats can seek other avenues'

It's unclear where and when exactly Sinema made the speech, but according to MSNBC producer Nick Ramsey, it was taken in 2010 before Sinema was a Senator. It is a follow-up to a previous tweet where Ramsey said, "when Barack Obama was president, sen. Sinema advocated using reconciliation on health care reform to avoid a 60-vote threshold & avoid the need for senate democrats to “kowtow” to moderate democrats." He went on to say she "has never been an absolutist on this point."

In the video, Sinema attacks Senator Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat who was in the Senate from 1989 to 2013. "The Democrats can stop kowtowing to Joe Liberman," she says if there wasn't any pressure to hit the 60-vote mark in the Senate, which is what the filibuster requires. Sinema goes on to say they can "instead seek other avenues to afford health reform." She then says the Senate will likely use "a process called reconciliation," which many Democrats have advocated for.

"By the way, it's not unusual," she continues and notes that Republicans "managed to do a lot of really bad things" despite never having 60 votes. "The reconciliation process is still available," Sinema says, adding, "We will use it for good rather than evil." Here's the video of those comments-

'Worse than Anakin Skywalker'

The video quickly got the attention of the Internet, and within hours racked up over a million views. It also inspired a lot of trolling, with one user commenting, "I can’t imagine selling my soul like she has." Another user noted, "2010 Rants about Joe Lieberman 2022 Is Joe Lieberman." One person trolled, "Her turn to the dark side was even worse than Anakin Skywalker." 

Another commented, "This is poor @SenatorSinema. New improved millionaire Kyrsten doesn’t even know this girl…." One person said, "More evidence that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely," while another trolled, "She reminds me of Meryl Streep in Don’t Look Up."

It's important to note that the reconciliation process Sinema backs in the video is vastly different from filibuster reform. Reconciliation is often used to pass budget bills, which she has refused to take a position on publicly as a Senator. Democrats are not currently looking at reconciliation to pass the voter reform bills, and it's unclear if Sinema would support such an effort if it were to happen. But from the video to her current stance, it's clear Sinema has drastically changed her views on how the Senate should work.