Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona) stepped up his criticism of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Arizona) on Monday, accusing her of wanting Democrats to lose control of Congress in November.
Gallego, who has floated a possible 2024 primary bid against the incumbent senator, was responding to comments Sinema made earlier Monday at the University of Louisville’s McConnell Center in which she indicated she thought Republicans were “susceptible.” to win back the House or the Senate. in November.
“I mean you could be out there helping our candidates @SenatorSinema But I feel like you’d actually prefer the Dems to lose control of the Senate and House,” Gallego tweeted. “Now that I think about it. I have traveled state and country. Donate, fundraise and encourage people to come and vote and I haven’t seen you anywhere @SenatorSinema.
A spokesperson for Sinema declined to comment directly, but pointed to The Hill on the theme of his Monday speech — bipartisanship and political discourse — and an excerpt from it centered on how politics in Washington became “increasingly radicalized” and “constantly spiraling downward in bitterness”. tribal extremism.
“Cable news pundits, outside groups and some political leaders on both sides of the aisle have let the loudest and most extreme voices from each party dominate the discourse and set the agenda, as it stirs up anger and drives tweets, views and clicks. But that doesn’t solve the problems,” Sinema said in his speech.
“Increasingly, it seems that Americans are being told that to be a member of either political party, you must adhere to a strict list of political views. But that’s not how the majority of Arizonans — or Kentuckians — or ordinary Americans think,” she added, pointing to the economic problems facing the United States.
Gallego has frequently criticized the Arizona senator, particularly for refusing to support key elements of President Biden’s agenda over the past year, headlined by the Build Back Better package.
In January, the Democratic congressman reportedly met with some of Sinema’s donors in New York after she and Sen. Joe Manchin (DW.Va.) killed the Democratic effort to roll back the legislative filibuster and said that Democrats and Progressives had pushed him about a potential primary race.
Since then, Sinema has notched up a few victories as she helped shape the anti-gun violence agenda following the tragic murders at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas in June. She also backed the Cut Inflation Act last month.
In his Monday speech, Sinema reiterated his calls for restoring a 60-vote Senate threshold for all executive and judicial nominees, while stressing the need to reject “extreme bias” in politics.
“Continuing to indulge in our increasingly toxic politics will not help us come together to solve the problems that plague us,” Sinema said. “We can reject extreme partisanship, ignore the noise of cable news and zero-sum political games, and instead focus on what unites us – choosing to work together to advance the issues that matter most to Americans than we serve,” she said. told the McConnell Center. “Imagine what more we could accomplish if more leaders joined me in this approach – if, rather than staying in their comfortable partisan corners, more leaders reached out in a genuine desire to compromise in good faith and to develop lasting solutions to our country’s toughest problems.
