Said James O’Keefe, founder and president of Project Veritas Action:
“Kyrsten Sinema used to be quite the radical firebrand. But now because she knows she must get moderate voters to win her senate race, she has perfected the art of playing it safe while diminishing her prior views and behavior.”
Arizonans will “actually shoot you”
Featured in this report is Sinema’s campaign manager Michelle Davidson, who explains that because of political pressures, Sinema cannot outright campaign on an assault weapons bans:
DAVIDSON: “… I think Kyrsten’s approach is so, I think, important. We can’t be talking about an assault weapons ban… “
In the video, Rep. Sinema says that Arizonans will “actually shoot you” if you support gun bans in an Arizona campaign. Davidson says that while Rep. Sinema can’t outwardly campaign on gun bans, what she can do is champion other gun control points:
DAVIDSON: “So we can’t talk about that [assault weapon bans] right? So what Kyrsten… the conversation that she can lead is how do we get to a place where we can, background checks… We’ve got to fix the gun show loophole, we have to fix the background check system. We’ve got to make it harder for people who have been convicted of domestic violence and other violent crimes to get guns—I mean those are the conversations we can have.”
Also featured in the report is Steve Andrews, a big donor to Sinema’s campaign for the Senate, who says that while not being able to campaign on assault weapon bans “voting I’d have to assume she’ll be okay.” Andrews adds “she won’t support assault weapons, I don’t think.”
Sinema Another Fake Moderate
Rep. Sinema makes her stance toward immigration clear, saying she believes the United States should grant a path to citizenship to anybody in the country who has not committed a “bad crime”:
SINEMA: “I believe that we should offer citizenship to every person in this country who isn’t bad. You know, if you haven’t committed a bad crime, you know, then you should get a path to citizenship. That’s what I believe.”
Also in the report are staffers working on Kyrsten Sinema’s campaign who admit that she is more progressive than she lets on. Lauren Fromm, a field organizer also featured in the report, says:
FROMM: “There’s a lot of very conservative people in Arizona and so [Sinema] can’t alienate the conservative or moderate conservative voters by being super pro- she is pro-choice. She is very liberal, she’s progressive.”
Fromm continues, saying Rep. Sinema doesn’t “want to draw too much attention to being progressive” because she’s trying to be more electable in such a conservative state. Fromm reiterates this, saying Rep. Sinema “has to capture all the moderate voters” because “Arizona is a red state.”
Another individual working on the campaign, Madison Snarr, says that Sinema will vote “democratic.” In discussing campaign messaging, Snarr mocks Sinema’s platform:
SNARR: “She’s going to vote for the interests of Arizonans. She’s going to stand up and protect Arizonan values. Whatever the f**k that means.”
Snarr says that if Arizonans like President Trump, they should not vote for Kyrsten Sinema.
Andrews, a donor to Rep. Sinema’s campaign, believes that she is a liberal, “but that’s not a way to win in this state.”
ANDREWS: “… She probably is [progressive] in her heart, but she knows to survive and get elected, she’s gotta walk the walk a little bit. And I respect that, I’m tired of losing.”
Andrews also explains that Rep. Sinema needs to be careful not to alienate any voters, but will still be a vote “against Trump”:
ANDREWS: “[Sinema can’t do] anything that’ll alienate any voters at this point in time. It’s gotta be all good. It’s gotta be all Martha McSally is a c**t… But she’ll be a vote… She’ll vote against Trump. If [the Democrats] get control of both houses during the Trump administration, it would be big, that’s why we’re so heavily invested in the Senate.”
Michael Smyser, another individual who works on Rep. Sinema’s campaign, explains that since US Senate seat terms are longer than US Congressional terms, Sinema will have more time to advance a more progressive agenda and will only have to be moderate once time for reelection comes.
SMYSER: “I could totally see this happening… see, this is why it makes sense as well why she’s a more moderate democrat, in the house at least. Like, her voting. Um, it’s just because those are only two-year terms. And so, with that, with such short terms they just really, there’s not a lot of time for them to like get their… the public that’ they’re representing on board with a lot of like more swinging left type things. Um, but when there’s six years, with a Senate seat…”
JOURNALIST: “She has more time to do more progressive things.”
SMYSER: “Yeah.”
