OPINION: Both political parties are not actually twisting the facts about elections, but Sinema’s courting Republican voters ahead of her likely reelection bid.|| Screenshot CBS
Arthur Delaney
HuffPost
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) blames the media and “both political parties” for voters’ lack of trust in elections.
Sinema, who recently left the Democratic Party and is now an independent, said Sunday that all Americans need to “do the work” to make sure they have accurate information about the world around them.
“Because unfortunately, what’s happening in our public discourse is members of both political parties are twisting stories to create their own narratives,” Sinema said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”
Contrary to Sinema’s suggestion that election denialism is bipartisan, members of the Republican Party have done far more than Democrats to sow distrust in voting systems and election results.
Former President Donald Trump, in fact, has made false claims about the supposedly “rigged” 2020 election the centerpiece of his campaign for the Republican nomination in 2024.
If Sinema decides to run for reelection ― she hasn’t formally announced her plans yet ― she would need Republican votes in order to prevail in a likely three-way race for her Senate seat. So her false assessment of the public discourse around elections may reflect an effort on her part not to alienate her coalition.
Arizona has seen some of the country’s most extreme election denialist politics. Former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, for instance, still maintains that she actually won in November.
Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), who is challenging Sinema as a Democrat, called the senator’s answer pathetic.
“We have election officials in Arizona that have been stalked and suffering from PTSD and this is her answer,” Gallego said on Twitter. “When in doubt Sinema always resorts to a noun, a verb and both sides as an answer.”
