Kyrsten Sinema takes page from John McCain with thumbs down vote

Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema gave a nod to her late predecessor Sen. John McCain with a flashy thumbs down vote in the Senate on Friday.

Video captured in the Senate chamber showed the newly elected Sinema making the move to reject a proposal from Sen. Bernie Sanders to include a $15 minimum wage increase into the Senate’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package.

Sinema was joined by seven other Senate Democrats as well as all Republicans.

McCain famously voted no on a Senate plan to repeal Obamacare in 2018 with a thumbs down that ultimately sunk the effort.

Though she supports raising the wage, Sinema said she would support the ruling of the Senate Parliamentarian who determined that the minimum wage could not be included as part of the Reconciliation process, a Senate protocol, which is allowing the coronavirus relief bill to pass with 51 votes as opposed to the customary 60 necessary to override a filibuster.

“Senators of both parties have shown support for raising the federal minimum wage and the Senate should hold an open debate and amendment process on raising the minimum wage separate from the COVID-focused reconciliation bill,” Sinema said in a statement explaining her vote.

The sentiment didn’t go over well among many in her own party, with Progressives taking particular ire. Sanders took the floor Saturday to urge his colleagues to disregard the Parliamentarian’s ruling, dismissing him as an unelected employee of the Senate.

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was even blunter.

“Imagine having the ganas to go home and ask minimum wage workers to support you after going back on your own documented stance to help crush their biggest chance at a wage hike during their longest drought of wage increases since the law’s very inception. Sin vergüenza,” she said in a tweet.