Tipsheet

Biden Says Sinema Being Chased into a Bathroom Just 'Part of the Process'

Spencer Brown
Spencer Brown  |  October 04, 2021 1:00 PM

While taking questions at the White House on Monday, President Biden was asked for his thoughts on the recent harassment of Democratic Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ). 

Sinema was harassed by activists while teaching a class at Arizona State University and subsequently chased her into a bathroom and filmed her while inside.

Manchin, whose D.C. residence is a houseboat docked in Washington Channel, was accosted by activists on kayaks.

"I don't think they're appropriate tactics but it happens to everybody," Biden said of the targeted political harassment of sitting U.S. senators. "The only people it doesn't happen to are people who have Secret Service standing around them, it's part of the process," he added. 

While Biden didn't say whether that "process" is convincing holdouts in his party to cave and switch their positions or something else, his half-hearted attempt to say that the actions taken against Sinema and Machin were "inappropriate" only served as a wink and a nod that targeted harassment of Senators not going along with his agenda is unavoidable and apparently normal.  

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In a statement Monday morning, Sinema slammed those who targeted her. "Yesterday's behavior was not legitimate protest," she said in a statement. "It is unacceptable for activist organizations to instruct their members to jeopardize themselves by engaging in unlawful activities such as gaining entry to closed university buildings, disrupting learning environments, and filming students in a restroom."

Biden's wink and nod to harassing activists, predictably, did not go over well.