Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
- Arizona has been a hotbed for GOP election denialism since Trump contested the 2020 results.
- When asked about it, Sinema criticized both parties for trying to "create their own narratives."
- In 2024, Sinema would likely need support from conservative voters who doubt the 2020 election.
Asked why so many in Arizona did not believe in the legitimacy of the state's elections, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema blamed a broad "climate" of untruth driven by "members of both political parties."
In an interview on Friday in Sedona, CBS News' Margaret Brennan asked the Democrat-turned-Independent about the phenomenon of "election denialism" in the state — revealing the careful manner in which Sinema is navigating the issue as she potentially launches a re-election bid.
"Well, we're currently living in a climate where it's okay to say things that aren't true," Sinema said. "Which is crazy, right?"
Arizona has been a hotbed for election denial since former President Donald Trump and his political allies disputed President Joe Biden's 2020 victory in the state — later seeking to overturn the results entirely. Kari Lake, a former television broadcaster, ran for governor explicitly on an election denialist message, only narrowly losing to current Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs.
On Friday, Sinema initially argued that media consumption is a key contributor to election denial and mistrust in elections — before arguing that both Democrats are Republicans are "twisting stories to create their own narratives."
"What I think we're facing in our country today is this situation where people don't know what's true and what's not true," said Sinema. "People aren't sure what's fact and what's fiction. And part of that, frankly, is because much of the media that we consume isn't actual news. It's opinion."
"So when people are confusing opinion or media with news or journalism, then the lines get very blurry," she added. "Unfortunately, what's happening in our public discourse is members of both political parties are twisting stories to create their own narratives, which may or may not be true, and we see it every day."
Brennan then pressed Sinema on the issue, alluding to candidates like Lake and 2022 GOP Senate nominee Blake Masters, who also argued that the 2020 election had been stolen: "We're not just talking about media silos, you're talking about people who are running for public office," the CBS News host noted.
Sinema again blamed "the two political parties" for becoming "more extreme."
"One of the unfortunate things that's happening in Arizona, and we see this in other parts of the country as well, is that the two political parties have gotten more and more extreme. They've moved away from that center of working together and finding that common ground," she replied, later adding: "That's how you get folks running for political office who are outside of the mainstream."
Reached for comment, Sinema spokesman Pablo Sierra-Carmona said that the Arizona senator was "largely discussing how as a society all our institutions — including journalism" are "not doing a good job promoting honesty and truth."
He also noted that Sinema was the last senator to finish speaking before the January 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol disrupted the Senate's proceedings. During that speech, Sinema defended the integrity of Arizona's electoral system.
"The 2020 Arizona election was a success: not for any one party or individual, but as a demonstration of the will of the voters," she said in the speech, arguing that rejecting the state's 11 Electoral College votes would rob "more than 3 million Arizonans of a free, fair election."
Sinema was also among a group of senators who wrote a bill reforming the Electoral Count Act, aimed at strengthening the country's electoral system and preventing another January 6.
But since then, Sinema has said little in public about the issue. Though she backed Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly's re-election against Masters, she largely stayed out of the gubernatorial race, endorsing Hobbs against Lake in a low-key statement provided to the Huffington Post.
As Sinema potentially seeks re-election in 2024, how she talks about election denial will likely draw further scrutiny.
Lake says she's "seriously considering" a Senate campaign, and Sheriff Mark Lamb, already running in the GOP primary, has also cast doubt on the validity of the 2020 election.
But with Sinema facing a challenge from her left from Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego, any victory in 2024 would depend in part on winning over Republicans and GOP-leaning independents — some of whom may believe the 2020 election was fraudulent.