Senior Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) was pursued into the toilet after a group of protesters heckled her while she was preparing to leave the Arizona State University in Pheonix on Sunday. The protesters accosted the Senator and followed her into the bathroom where she locked herself in a stall and refused to answer their questions.
As she was moving out of a classroom at ASU’s campus in downtown Phoenix, protesters belonging to the Living United for Change in Arizona, or Lucha, waylaid Kyrsten Sinema, asserting her that “we need a ‘build back better’ plan right now,” referring to the $3.5 trillion domestic policy bill that would expand the social safety net.
The incident was captured on mobile phones, the video of which has gone viral on the internet. In the video, Senator Sinema could be seen hurriedly rushing to the restroom as a protester follows her right into the toilet urging her to pass the reconciliation bill that she has held locked in negotiations.
How embarrassing for Kyrsten Sinema having people film you in the toilet pic.twitter.com/HbKdJJ9i3z
— Dr. Nifkin, OB (@Dr_Nifkin) October 3, 2021
When confronted, Kyrsten Sinema told them she is actually heading out and then walks into a bathroom. One of the protesters follows her into the bathroom while another person stood at the entrance recording the incident.
After the Senator went into the stall and locked herself up, another protester said, “We need solutions and the build back better plan has the solutions that we need.”
“We knocked on doors for you to get you elected. And, just how we got you elected, we can get you out of office if you don’t support what you promised us,” one of the protesters warned after the Senator had denied supporting the bill floated by the Biden administration.
“My name is Blanca. I was brought to the United States when I was three years old. In 2010 both my grandparents got deported because of SB1070. My grandfather passed away two weeks ago and I wasn’t able to go to Mexico because there is no pathway to citizenship,” the activist said.
“This is the opportunity to pass it right now, and we need to hold you accountable to what you promised us that you were going to pass when we knocked on doors for you. It’s not right.”
Later, another female protester comes forward to confront Se. Sinema while she was washing her hands, telling her she is “a survivor of human trafficking”.
Sinema had hit the headlines after she refused to support Biden’s $3.5 trillion bill that aims to expand America’s social safety net. She, along with others, have objected to the bill, demanding that the $3.5 trillion budget for the legislation be trimmed down. However, Biden and his supporters have argued that the bill addresses important initiatives such as addressing climate change and increasing federal social safety-net programs.
