Former Independent Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who was previously a Democrat, is having the last laugh about her former Democratic colleagues’ attempts to end the filibuster.
Sinema torched several far-left congressional Democrats for their hypocrisy on the filibuster following a majority of Senate Democrats attempting to use the filibuster to tank the government funding bill that passed the Senate in a series of posts on X beginning Saturday. Sinema was a fierce defender of the filibuster during her time as a senator, which made her a pariah among her Democratic colleagues and earned her a formal censure from the Arizona Democratic party.
The filibuster requires the Senate to have 60 votes to advance most legislation. Former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama have called the Senate procedural rule a “relic of the Jim Crow Era.”
Sinema and former Democrat turned Independent West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin joined Senate Republicans to reject an attempt from the then Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to end the filibuster in January 2022 during a failed vote of 48-52.
House Democrats, including Reps. Ro Khanna of California and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who failed to stop Speaker Mike Johnson from passing the government funding bill largely along party lines, called on Senate Democrats to filibuster the spending bill to stop the legislation from advancing to President Donald Trump’s desk. They previously called for the abolition of the Senate procedural rule when Democrats had a trifecta of government, which would have allowed Senate Democrats to advance partisan legislation by a simple majority vote.
“Once again, pointing out that you repeatedly demanded that the Senate eliminate the very tool you’re now demanding the Senate utilize to stop Trump,” Sinema wrote on X Sunday morning in response to a post from Khanna criticizing the former Arizona senator for using the filibuster to tank partisan legislation while holding office. “Doesn’t take a rocket science to see the blatant hypocrisy here.”
“Change of heart on the filibuster, I see,” Sinema wrote in a tweet trolling Ocasio-Cortez Saturday. Ocasio-Cortez previously labeled Sinema a “Dem obstructionist” and called for her to be primaried due to her opposition to abolishing the filibuster. Despite this, the Democratic firebrand advocated for Senate Democrats to filibuster the GOP spending bill and excoriated Schumer and nine additional Senate Democrats for voting for the legislation to avert a partial government shutdown.
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 ones.
Could have proved us wrong. Instead they proved the point. https://t.co/F0d3juPg5L
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 15, 2025
Sinema confronted Ocasio-Cortez for a second time on Sunday after the New York congresswoman asserted that Senate Democrats never use the filibuster to “block harmful GOP” policies.
Senate Democrats, as Sinema pointed out Sunday morning, have used the filibuster three times in 2025 to block legislation on barring transgender athletes in women’s sports, sanctioning International Criminal Court officials and protecting babies’ right to life during botched abortions.
Senate Republicans have pointed out the irony of Senate Democrats filibustering GOP legislation when they previously tried to abolish the procedural rule when Biden was president and Schumer controlled the Senate.
“I’m forgetting, Mr. President, the rules are different for Democrats,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said on the Senate floor on Feb. 18. “If you’re a Democrat, it’s perfectly fine – and not at all hypocritical – to plan to abolish the filibuster should you gain a majority in the Senate, but to use it regularly when you do not.”
Thirty-eight Senate Democrats voted to use the filibuster to shut down the government rather than vote for the GOP spending bill Friday. All 38 of these senators either voted to abolish the filibuster in January 2022 or campaigned to end the procedural rule.
“Yes dear the hypocrisy is the point,” Sinema wrote in a tweet in response to a user pointing out Senate Democrats’ flip-flop on the filibuster.
Sinema’s takedown of congressional Democrats earned her praise from Senate Republicans who lauded her defense of the filibuster while she served in the upper chamber.
“Gotta love @kyrstensinema when she has the receipts on the D filibuster hypocrisy,” Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn wrote on X Saturday.
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