Former Independent Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who previously served as a Democrat, is having the last laugh over her former Democratic colleagues’ efforts to end the filibuster. Sinema criticized several far-left congressional Democrats for their hypocrisy regarding the filibuster after a majority of Senate Democrats attempted to use it to block the government funding bill that ultimately passed. In a series of posts on X starting Saturday, Sinema called out their actions.
She was a staunch defender of the filibuster during her time in the Senate, which made her unpopular among her Democratic peers and led to her formal censure by the Arizona Democratic Party. The filibuster requires the Senate to secure 60 votes to advance most legislation. Former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama have referred to the Senate procedural rule as a “relic of the Jim Crow Era.” Sinema and former Democrat-turned-Independent West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin joined Senate Republicans in opposing an attempt by then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to eliminate the filibuster in January 2022. The effort ultimately failed in a vote of 48-52.
House Democrats, including Reps. Ro Khanna of California and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who were unsuccessful in blocking Speaker Mike Johnson from passing the government funding bill mostly along party lines, urged Senate Democrats to filibuster the spending bill to prevent it from reaching President Donald Trump’s desk. These same Democrats had previously called for the abolition of the Senate filibuster rule when the party held a trifecta of government, which would have enabled Senate Democrats to pass partisan legislation with 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 Bronx leftist 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. “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 confronted Ocasio-Cortez for a second time on Sunday after the New York congresswoman stated 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.”