Sen. Kyrsten Sinema was confronted by another group of activists on Monday during her trip back to Washington, DC, one day after she was accosted while teaching a class at Arizona State University.
During and after her flight to Reagan National Airport, the Arizona Democrat was filmed by protesters who pressed her on her resistance to voting for the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill.
Video footage uploaded to Twitter showed Sinema walking through the airport and talking on her cellphone as several protesters gathered around her, filming on their phones. One protester could be seen holding a sign that read, “Don’t sink our bill.”
As a TSA agent walked behind the senator, another protester could be heard asking, “Hi, Senator Sinema, I want to ask if you can explain to the American people what you’re planning on cutting from Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan?”
“Do you want to cut climate priorities? Is that elder care that you want to cut, or is it child care?”
Sinema did not answer.
During her flight, a separate activist filmed herself walking up the airplane aisle to the senator’s seat, where she asked Sinema about her commitment to including a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants in the reconciliation bill.
“Can you commit to that, Senator?” asked the activist, a DACA recipient named Karina. “I don’t want to disturb you, but at the same time, I just want to know if I can get a commitment from you, Senator.”
Both incidents came one day after several activists confronted Sinema in her classroom at ASU and followed her into a bathroom while filming.
Video of the incident shows the small group of immigration activists — some of whom indicated they may be here illegally — following the senator through an ASU hallway as they continue to berate her when she enters a bathroom stall.
She told the activists that she had to leave, but they continued to follow her into the ladies’ room, still filming.
Sinema did not respond to the activists, choosing to quietly remain in the closed stall.
According to Arizona law, it is illegal “for any person to knowingly photograph, videotape, film, digitally record or by any other means secretly view another person without that person’s consent” in restrooms, bathrooms, locker rooms, bedrooms, or any other locations where a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy.
On Monday, the Arizona Democrat slammed the activists for their “unacceptable” behavior.
“Yesterday, several individuals disrupted my class at Arizona State University. After deceptively entering a locked, secure building, these individuals filmed and publicly posted videos of my students without their permission — including footage taken of both my students and I using a restroom,” she began in a statement posted to Twitter.
“Yesterday’s behavior was not legitimate protest,” Sinema added. “It is unacceptable for activist organizations to instruct their members to jeopardize themselves by engaging in unlawful activities such as gaining entry to close university buildings, disrupting learning environments, and filming students in a restroom.”
Sinema pointed to her commitment to creating a “safe and intellectually challenging environment” for her students in the past 19 years she has been teaching at the university, claiming that the environment was breached on Sunday.
“My students were unfairly and unlawfully victimized. This is wholly inappropriate.”
The activists were targeting Sinema for her stance on President Biden’s $3.5 trillion Build Back Better infrastructure bill, which she and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) have vowed to vote against at its current price tag.
Biden has met with both senators in recent weeks to negotiate and discuss their toplines for the bill.
On Monday, the president dismissed the harassment of Sinema as “part of the process” when he was asked if the activists crossed a line by filming her as she entered a bathroom stall.
“I don’t think they’re appropriate tactics but it happens to everybody,” Biden told reporters, before letting out a laugh.
He was also asked about Manchin being confronted by a group of activists on kayaks while he was on his houseboat in Washington, DC, last week.
“The only people it doesn’t happen to are people who have Secret Service standing around. So it’s part of the process,” Biden said.