‘Breathtakingly Undemocratic’: Kyrsten Sinema Unloads On AOC and Slew of Dems, Mocking Sudden ‘Change of Heart’ on Filibuster

Zachary LeemanMar 15th, 2025, 3:13 pm
 

Randy Hoeft/The Yuma Sun via AP

Kyrsten Sinema called out Democrats who were opposed to her support for the Senate filibuster, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).

The filibuster debate reignited again this week amid budget chaos as Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) faced pressure from some Democrats after he backed pushing through the continuing resolution. The filibuster is a procedural rule that forces 60 votes for legislation to move forward, and it’s something some Democratic lawmakers have long argued against. During this debate, however, some pushed to use the filibuster to prevent the CR from being pushed through.

“Change of heart on the filibuster, I see!” Sinema, a former Arizona senator. wrote in response to Ocasio-Cortez saying she felt “outrage and betrayal” over Schumer voting to advance the CR.

She also included Ocasio-Cortez’s past criticism of Sinema’s support for the filibuster.

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Ocasio-Cortez bit back, saying she has not changed her position and arguing that the filibuster is still more used “to block Dem policies” as opposed to “harmful GOP ones.”

“Still no. In fact, the same Dems who argue to keep the filibuster ‘for when we need it’ do not, in fact, use it when we need it. It’s only used to block Dem policies. Never to block harmful GOP one,” she wrote. “Could have proved us wrong. Instead they proved the point.”

“Literally zero Senate Democrats support the filibuster. 38 voted to filibuster the continuing resolution yesterday. 8 who previously voted to eliminate the filibuster (1/19/22) did not filibuster. 1 who previously campaigned against the filibuster did not filibuster,” Sinema responded.

The former Democrat also targeted Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), the latter of whom referred the filibuster as the “Jim Crow filibuster in a 2024 tweet that Sinema included in her message.

“Popular take from the Left: If u had eliminated the filibuster & voted for everything that the Left wanted, the threat of the filibuster being used by Rs would never happen bc Ds would win every election & have a permanent majority,” Sinema wrote while criticizing Khanna. “What a breathtakingly undemocratic take.”

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Zachary Leeman

Zachary Leeman covered pop culture and politics at outlets such as Breitbart, LifeZette, BizPac Review, HollywoodinToto, and others. He is the author of the novel Nigh. He joined Mediaite in 2022.