Sinema: I ‘don’t give a shit’ about backlash from anti-labor NLRB vote

Known for steering clear of speaking with the press, outgoing Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema sat down with the news outlet Semafor for an exit interview that was published Friday. In typical Sinema fashion, the Democrat-turned-Independent oscillated between Sphinx-like opaqueness and blistering candor.

Most notable from the interview was her response when asked about criticism of her Dec. 11 vote that torpedoed Democrats’ pro-union nomination to the National Labor Relations Board. Her vote cost the party a chance to keep a pro-Democratic and pro-union majority on the board at least through the first two years of Donald Trump’s next term.

“Don’t give a shit,” Sinema responded brusquely when asked about the flak she got. The Semafor article suggests she did not care to explain her vote.

The curt response fittingly sums up Sinema’s general attitude during her time in the Senate: answer to no one and explain nothing. It certainly contrasts with Sinema’s final floor speech, during which she made a lofty call for bipartisanship and compromise.

It’s more in line with the infamous curtsy she made when voting against raising the federal minimum wage to help working families, which earned her Phoenix New Times’ 2021 Best Dumbass Political Move award. Sinema never recovered politically from the self-inflicted gaffe, cornering herself with “I don’t give a shit” decisions that were met with disdain from Arizona voters.

During her tenure, Sinema was a great ally to the country’s ultrawealthy and has reaped the luxurious rewards that have come with it. While she was a key swing vote during the first two years of Joe Biden’s presidency, she made a deal to keep a key tax loophole alive for private equity firms and hedge funds — the wealthiest of the wealthy. After that, such companies donated at least $526,000 to her campaign. She also was a top recipient of donations from the student loan, airline and credit union industries, according to OpenSecrets, a nonprofit that tracks campaign finances.

These were donations the Sinema campaign never used for campaigning. Instead, they allowed Sinema to live a fantasy jet-setting life. An probe by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at Arizona State University found last year that a Sinema-sponsored political action committee shelled out big-time money for “private air charters, first-class flights for lobbyists, five-star hotels in Paris and Madrid, and tens of thousands of dollars on catered wine.”

Even after Sinema announced in March 2024 that she would not run for reelection, her campaign spent more than $100,000 on trips and meals. Not that she ever discussed those expenditures, or her string of recent absences from votes, with her constituents.

Sinema also addressed (or avoided) a few other topics in the Semafor interview.

She said that she already knows what she’ll be doing for work after she leaves the Senate but would share only that she is leaving politics for good. She claimed one Democratic senator apologized for criticizing her defense of the filibuster and even thanked her for protecting it now that Trump will reenter the White House. She wouldn’t say which senator that was, nor would she say who she voted for in the presidential election.

Sinema also expressed pride about her record as a key negotiator and dealmaker in the Senate.

“Honestly, I feel like we got 40 years' worth of work done in one term,” she said in the interview. “I do wish we had gotten immigration done. We tried really hard, but everything else was just pretty freaking amazing.”

She also said she didn’t think “enjoy” was the right word to describe how she felt about her single term.

“I think, maybe, this is a place where sometimes people say things that they don’t mean. I am not one of those people,” Sinema told Semafor. “I think I’m highly predictable.”