- Sen.
Kyrsten Sinema mocked Biden and praised GOP members of Congress at a fundraiser, a book says. - The Arizona Democrat painted herself as "anti-government" and "anti-tax" at the event, it adds.
Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema made fun of President
The New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns pull back the curtain on Sinema's frequently tumultuous relationship with the Biden White House in their upcoming book "This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America's Future." Axios reported some of the accounts in their book on Wednesday morning.
The book says Sinema, who has repeatedly opposed corporate-tax increases in Biden's proposed economic and social-spending package, painted herself as "anti-government" and "anti-tax" while speaking to the audience of a closed-door fundraiser primarily attended by Republican lobbyists. Axios also reported that Sinema, according to the book, also mocked Biden, but did not detail what exactly she said.
"I love Andy Biggs," she said of her fellow Arizona lawmaker at the fundraiser, the date of which is not made clear in the book. "I know some people think he's crazy, but that's just because they don't know him."
Biggs, one of the most conservative members of Congress, represents Arizona's 5th Congressional District and chairs the House Freedom Caucus. He previously served as president of the Arizona Senate.
Sinema and Biggs have been friends since their days serving together in the Arizona Legislature and have long found common ground across the aisle. Sinema backed him for Congress in 2016, telling a business group, "I can't wait to sit here and do this with Andy next year," the Phoenix New Times reported at the time.
Biggs has, among other things, spread false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from President Donald Trump in Arizona, called for the election in Pennsylvania to be nullified, said as recently as October that it was not clear whether Biden fairly won Arizona in 2020, and denied the existence of climate change.
Biggs, who objected to Congress ratifying the 2020 election on January 6, 2021, has also pushed baseless conspiracy theories that the Black Lives Matter movement, antifa, and the FBI may have been involved in causing the insurrection.
Two of Biggs' own brothers have publicly condemned his attempts to discredit the 2020 election and called for his removal from Congress in the wake of the Capitol riot.
"By attempting to cause uncertainty in the election's outcome, Andy is at least partially to blame for the riot at the Capital on January 6," the Biggs brothers wrote in a letter obtained by The Arizona Republic. "Political ambition, peer pressure and fealty to [former President Donald] Trump proved to be too strong a drug to resist."
Fellow Democrats' frustration with Sinema has spilled over into the public sphere in recent months, with some progressives openly talking about mounting a campaign to challenge her in the 2024 Democratic primary.
The book also described more previously unreported details about the strained relationship between Sinema and the Biden White House, including that Sinema fought the White House's request for her to wear a mask in a meeting with Biden and told him not to come to Arizona to tout the passage of the American Rescue Plan last year.
Biden staffers have privately said Sinema acts more like GOP Sen. Mitt Romney than a Democrat, according to the book, with one person close to Biden comparing his difficulty understanding her to his confusion about why his grandchildren like using TikTok.
A representative for Sinema did not immediately return Insider's request for comment on the book's reporting.
The book will be released from Simon & Schuster on May 3.