What’s Kyrsten Sinema’s Deal?
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 1 July 2021
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema has become a constant source of consternation for the left wing of the Democratic party. But early in her career, she was a vocal proponent of progressive ideals. How did she turn into one of the party’s staunchest defenders of bipartisan compromise?
Guest: Amanda Becker, Washington Correspondent for the 19th.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | How do you think about Kirsten Cinema's place in the cinematic universe of the U.S. |
| 0:11.1 | Capitol right now? |
| 0:13.0 | Senator Kirsten Cinema is at the center of the universe in the U.S. Capitol right now. |
| 0:21.4 | Amanda Becker covers Washington for the 19th. |
| 0:24.6 | Thinks a lot about the characters in power, how they got there. |
| 0:28.1 | When she says Senator Cinema is at the center of the universe in the U.S. Capitol, |
| 0:33.0 | she means it literally. |
| 0:34.4 | Like, if you think about politicians on an ideological spectrum, this Arizona |
| 0:39.3 | senator would be smack, dab in the middle. And that means her and Joe Mansion from West Virginia |
| 0:46.2 | are kind of pivotal to every single thing that the Biden administration and Democrats would |
| 0:52.4 | like to accomplish. |
| 0:57.3 | Politics aside, Senator Cinema definitely stands out. |
| 1:01.8 | She's been known to wear thigh-high boots to legislative sessions. |
| 1:05.2 | During COVID, she covered up her overgrown roots with lavender and turquoise wigs. |
| 1:10.6 | But you get a sense of her power when you see |
| 1:13.2 | the way the White House puts her front and center. When President Biden was trying to iron out an |
| 1:18.4 | infrastructure bill and racing to announce he had a deal, Senator Sinema was standing by his side. |
| 1:26.1 | Amanda says the thing about these crucial moments, though, is you might |
| 1:29.7 | see Kirsten Cinema, but you will rarely hear from her. She's kind of a black box right now in |
| 1:36.3 | terms of what will she get on board with, what won't she get on board with. Yeah, it's funny to me |
| 1:41.6 | because Kristen Sinema is hard to ignore. She's often dressed in |
| 1:47.2 | like an attention getting way, but then you don't ever really seem to know what it all means. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Slate Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.