Joy Reid Whines About Kyrsten Sinema Supporting 'Jim Crow Filibuster'

August 10th, 2021 4:13 PM

MSNBC’s Joy Reid continues to promote the left’s “voting rights” legislation by attacking anyone who opposes the radical policy proposal to federalize all elections. On Monday’s “Absolute Worst” segment of The ReidOut, she smeared Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema as a racist backstabber for defending the “Jim Crow Filibuster.”

Reid began the segment by slamming Sinema for declining an invitation to appear on the show (to be attacked) and for not answering a question about the exclusion of people of color in the bipartisan infrastructure bill negotiations: 

The Senator, the senior Senator from Arizona, would not address legitimate criticism that not one of the people negotiating on her little infrastructure bill was a person of color. I guess that’s not relevant or as she says a personal attack. I guess that also helps explain why she’s been palling around with Republican senators, and that probably explains why she has refused to endorse a filibuster exemption, you know, doesn’t want to ruffle any Republican feathers.

 

 

Perhaps Sinema has avoided the press because she would rather focus on her job than answer the liberal media’s biased questions that intend to portray her as an enemy of democracy. 

Reid continued her rant, whining about how insulting it is for Sinema to defend the “Jim Crow filibuster”: “It’s like saying I have a black friend, or John Lewis is my hero while you’re stabbing in the back. It’s also galling to hear the lack of urgency in her voice when it comes to disenfranchising thousands of black and brown Americans.” According to Reid, Sinema is “the absolute worst” for supposedly sacrificing democracy and allowing voter suppression by not wanting to upend long-existing Senate rules to force through highly controversial legislation. 

Instead of highlighting Sinema’s logical reasons for opposing the abolishment of the filibuster, including the argument that it encourages bipartisanship and compromise, Reid devoted this segment to criticizing her. These vile attacks are not surprising because they help the liberal media achieve their goal of pushing the radical left’s agenda and silencing the opposition. 

This segment was brought to you by Farmers Insurance and Ensure, click on the links to let them know what you think.

Below is a transcript of the segment, click "expand" to read:

MSNBC's The ReidOut
08/09/2021
7:57 p.m. Eastern

REID: The United States Senate is on track to pass the roughly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal as soon as tomorrow.  Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema has been one of the lead negotiators of said deal for the Democrats. Until recently, Sinema has scrupulously avoided the press, but lately, in the wake of the bipartisan deal, she’s found her voice, suddenly, telling everyone why bipartisanship matters.

Now, for the record, we have invited her to appear on this show, but she has declined. Oddly, in her interview, she doesn’t address some glaring issues. Let’s start with the fact that not one of the 20 bipartisan senators negotiating the infrastructure was a person of color. Not even one. You’d think maybe, just maybe, they would have noticed a thing like that. She was asked about that glaring omission and here is what she said or rather didn’t say to NPR.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

NPR: New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a tweet accused you of tanking your party’s investment on childcare, climate change, and infrastructure. She accused you of members of color from negotiations. May I ask you to respond to that?

SEN. KYRSTEN SINEMA (D-AZ): Well, I’m not going to because I am laser-focused on advancing our legislation.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

REID: Do you catch that? The Senator, the senior Senator from Arizona, would not address legitimate criticism that not one of the people negotiating on her little infrastructure bill was a person of color. I guess that’s not relevant or as she says a personal attack. 

I guess that also helps explain why she’s been palling around with Republican senators, and that probably explains why she has refused to endorse a filibuster exemption, you know, doesn’t want to ruffle any Republican feathers, you know, those are her friends. The newly verbose senator was asked why she didn’t think the right to vote was urgent enough to nuke the filibuster, especially when it targets black, brown, indigenous, and Asian Americans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOY BEHAR: It seems like it’s an emergency right now that we get rid of the filibuster even though we might pay down the road, but if we don’t have voting rights, what do we got? Nothing.

SINEMA: If we were to eliminate the filibuster or create a so-called exception, which actually doesn’t exist, so you’d have to eliminate the filibuster in order to pass voting rights legislation, which just as a quick reminder, I’m an original co-sponsor of that legislation and have voted to support it and advance it, continue to do so. But if you eliminate the filibuster to pass that piece of legislation, then in four years or anytime when the other party gains control, without the filibuster in place, all of those voting rights protections could be easily wiped out with a simple majority vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: You know what, Senator, telling us you co-sponsored the bill while also telling us you’ll defend the Jim Crow filibuster is frankly insulting. It’s like saying I have a black friend, or John Lewis is my hero while you’re stabbing in the back. It’s also galling to hear the lack of urgency in her voice when it comes to disenfranchising thousands of black and brown Americans. I mean, tellingly

During the same NPR interview, Senator Sinema said that her constituents would reward her hard work by re-electing her. So tell me Senator, how does that work when your state is already purging voters? Some of your voters too. I guess sacrificing democracy was worth it as long as Tempe and Tucson get a couple of new roads. Yeah? And so, for all of that, Senator Sinema, you my dear are the absolute worst.