Psaki: ‘Inappropriate and Unacceptable’ for Activists to Chase Kyrsten Sinema Into Restroom
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Monday condemned leftist activists who followed Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) into a bathroom, harassing her and demanding she support the controversial $3.5 trillion reconciliation package that the progressive caucus prefers.
On Monday, President Joe Biden, when asked by Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy for his reaction to the harassment of Sinema – in addition to kayakers in Washington, D.C., who approached the yacht Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) in protest to his opposition to the bill – said, “I don’t think they’re appropriate tactics, but it happens to everybody. The only people it doesn’t happen to are people who have secret service standing around them. It’s a part of the process.”
Later, during the White House press briefing, Doocy asked Psaki, “A group of activists followed Sen. Kyrsten Sinema into a ladies room screaming about the Build Back Better plan yesterday. The president says I don’t think they are appropriate, but it happens to everybody and it’s part of the process. He is an expert on the process. Has he ever been chased into a restroom?”
Psaki responded:
Let me be clear here because I think the context of what happened here is very important. And Senator Sinema put out a statement this morning. So as she said and I would reiterate from here, the protection of their freedom to protest, to speak out and to criticize is fundamental to our democracy. The president believes that. Maybe he shorthanded it, but he wanted to make that clear this morning.
What happened this weekend was that her classroom, her students, and the safe and intellectually stimulating environment she’s worked to create during the years of teaching at [Arizona State University] was breached. That’s inappropriate and unacceptable.
And I think the context of what happened here is important despite the fact that, of course, we stand for the president, the president stands for the fundamental right of people to protest to object to criticize as they often do outside the gates of the White House.
Doocy then asked specifically if the White House does “condemn” these protesters for chasing Sinema into the bathroom.
“I just said it was inappropriate and unacceptable,” said Psaki.
Doocy also asked if they would say the protesters should not do that again, and Psaki said “I think that’s pretty clear, that they shouldn’t breach the classroom and make the students feel like their privacy, like their intellectually-stimulating classroom and their time as students in college is being broached.”
Watch above, via Fox News.
