Tangle - Kyrsten Sinema retires.

Starting point is 00:00:00 Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported across Canada, which is Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages six months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at flucellvax.ca.

Starting point is 00:01:00 From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to the Tangle podcast, the place we get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking, and a little bit of my take. I'm your host, Isaac Stahl, and on today's episode, we're going to be talking about Kyrsten Sinema, the independent senator from Arizona who just retired or announced she's not running for re-election, effectively retiring from Congress at the end of this term. We're going to break down why it's important, talk a little bit about her legacy, and I've kind of got strong feelings here. So I'm looking forward to sharing some of those. Before we jump in, I want to give you a quick heads up about what's going to happen tomorrow. We are releasing a subscribers-only, members-only

Starting point is 00:02:00 newsletter that is a follow-up to the Zionist case for a ceasefire. Last week, as many of you know, we published a podcast and a newsletter where I gave my view on why there should be a ceasefire in Gaza, making the argument through the lens of someone with a Zionist perspective. Despite being a Friday edition, we made that newsletter free for everyone we shared that podcast publicly many of you heard it here tomorrow we are going to be sharing a bunch of feedback i got to that edition i'm also going to respond to some of the feedback i got to that edition and that's going to be a members onlyonly newsletter. Now, on Sunday, in our Sunday podcast, Ari and I are going to talk a little bit about some of the feedback,

Starting point is 00:02:50 and we're going to do sort of a podcast version of that. It won't be as in-depth. It won't be as complete. But you will get some of that in Sunday's podcast. So for those of you who are exclusively podcast listeners, you might find that there. That being said, if you want to receive this tomorrow, if you want to get the newsletter version that you can read, where we're going to share a bunch of the criticisms of the piece, and I'm going to address some of those criticisms,

Starting point is 00:03:13 you need to be a member. You can do that by going to readtangle.com and clicking membership or readtangle.com forward slash membership and subscribing. All right, with that out of the way, we're going to jump in with some quick hits. First up, President Joe Biden will deliver his third State of the Union address tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern. Number two, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Republican from Kentucky who said he is stepping down from the role later this year, endorsed Donald Trump for president. Number three, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he has secured enough signatures to get on the ballot in Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona as a third-party candidate, three states that President Biden won by a combined 60,000 votes in 2020. Number four, led by Speaker Mike Johnson, the Republican from Louisiana, the House passed a $460 billion six-part spending package to keep several government agencies open for the remainder

Starting point is 00:04:19 of the budget year. And number five, two people were killed and six were injured in the Red Sea in an attack on a commercial shipping vessel by the Yemeni Houthi rebels. These are the first deaths associated with the Houthi rebel attacks. We have some breaking news. Independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona says that she is not running for reelection. She says she's going to be leaving the Senate at the end of the year. In a video just posted to social media, the Arizona lawmaker said, quote, the only political victories that matter these days are symbolic. She also said that compromise has become a, quote, dirty word

Starting point is 00:05:06 and that the U.S. has chosen anger and division. I believe in my approach, but it's not what America wants right now. I love Arizona, and I am so proud of what we've delivered. Because I chose civility, understanding, listening, working together to get stuff done, I will leave the Senate at the end of this year.

Starting point is 00:05:30 On Wednesday, the Democrat-turned-independent senator from Arizona announced she would not run for re-election. Sinema, often heralded as one of the most bipartisan senators in Congress, announced her decision in a video posted to X where she criticized the state of the Senate and extremism in both parties. It's all or nothing. The outcome is less important than beating the other guy, she said. The only political victories that matter these days are symbolic. Compromise is a dirty word. We've arrived at that crossroad where we choose anger and division. I believe in my approach, but it's not what America wants right now, she said. Sinema's decision brings some clarity to what could have been a

Starting point is 00:06:11 three-way Arizona Senate race between the independent Sinema, Representative Ruben Gallego, the Democrat, and Republican Carrie Lake. Each candidate has a significant public profile and plenty of cash on hand, but Sinema's exit tilts the race into Gallego's favor. Sinema hasn't made her post-Congress plans clear, but she's long said she isn't worried about re-election and wouldn't have trouble finding work outside the Senate. While Sinema is unpopular in Arizona, her endorsement in Arizona's Senate and statewide races is likely to be heavily courted by candidates from both parties looking to win over moderates. In the Senate, Sinema had a reputation for working across the aisle and legislating from the middle. She was central to bipartisan negotiations that led to

Starting point is 00:06:54 legislation on gun control, infrastructure, and the Respect for Marriage Act. She helped negotiate reforms through the Electoral Count Reform Act, which was designed to prevent another incident like January 6th and clarified the Senate's role in elections. She was also at the center of negotiations on proposed immigration reforms like the bill that was blocked by Republicans in the Senate last month. On Twitter, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy shared a story emblematic of Sinema's reputation in which she insisted Murphy not move on from negotiations with Republicans to close the so-called boyfriend loophole in a gun control bill. In the end, Sinema got enough Republicans on board to make it happen, even after Murphy had given up. Conversely, Sinema has often drawn the

Starting point is 00:07:37 ire of progressive Democrats and Republicans alike. She angered progressives by refusing to make changes to the filibuster that would have allowed Democrats to codify abortion and voting rights with their one-vote majority, by helping block cancellation of tax cuts for wealthy investors in the Inflation Reduction Act, and perhaps most famously, by rejecting a federal minimum wage hike to $15 an hour with a thumbs down and a curtsy. a curtsy. For the right, many view Sinema, once a Green Party activist, as a wolf in sheep's clothing who poses as a moderate despite having the Democratic Party's interests in mind. Today, we're going to examine some reactions from the right and the left to Sinema's decision to leave and what it might mean for the future of the Senate. We'll be right back after this quick commercial break.

Starting point is 00:08:35 First up, we'll start with what the right is saying. The right worries that Sinema's exit imperils the future of the filibuster. Some say Sinema was effectively forced out of politics by Arizona Democrats. Others say her exit is emblematic of a wave of such departures that show how polarized our politics have become. National Review's editors wrote about Sinema's exit and the perilous future of the filibuster. Sinema was, by any measure, a progressive member of the Senate, but she had her limits, the editor said. The Arizona senator would not get on board with

Starting point is 00:09:05 Biden's signature $3.5 trillion Build Back Better proposal and consistently fought off the Jacobins in her caucus who have pushed radical ideas such as packing the Supreme Court. Perhaps above all, she drew the anger of left-wing activists for her steadfast refusal to blow up the filibuster. Beyond the immediate electoral implications, a longer-term consequence is that Sinema's exit means yet another defender of the filibuster is leaving the Senate, the editors added. If Biden gets re-elected with a Democratic senator, conservatives can no longer count on Manchin and Sinema to hold the line against efforts from the left to do away with the filibuster. In PJ Media, Matt Margolis suggested the real reason why Sinema isn't seeking re-election. There's no justification for Sinema to pat herself on the back for being

Starting point is 00:09:52 a centrist. The media may call her a centrist or an independent, but she's a leftist through and through. Yet she managed to get elected in a red state. Her crossover appeal was due to a few select objections to the Biden agenda, which was necessary if she had any chance of getting re-elected in 2024, Margolis wrote. Had Arizona Democrats not forced her to change her party affiliation to independent, Sinema likely would have won re-election as a Democrat by peeling off a small but consequential number of Republican voters. She would have been a tough candidate to beat in the general election in 2024 had she not been forced to leave her party, Margolis said. Despite Sinema's rhetoric, it was Arizona Democrats who forced her retirement from the Senate. In The Spectator,

Starting point is 00:10:35 John Gabriel said Sinema leaves behind a divided Arizona. Sinema's decision isn't the biggest shock considering Americans' current aversion to conversation and compromise, Gabriel wrote. Sinema joins a long list of frustrated Republicans and Democrats abandoning elective office to the cable news shouters and ineffectual ideologues. Her own position was previously vacated by Senator Jeff Flake, who couldn't get a hearing during the Trump era. Her likely replacement will better fit the angry public mood, whoever wins. Republicans will nominate failed gubernatorial candidate Carrie Lake, while Gallegos seems an odd fit for Arizona since his progressive views are more in line with the squad than an average Democrat, Gabriel said. In ordinary times, Sinema would still be a Democrat and remain the

Starting point is 00:11:21 strong favorite, but it doesn't take a master strategist to know these are not ordinary times. All right, that is it for the rightist saying, which brings us to what the left is saying. The left is mixed in its reaction to Sinema's announcement, with some praising her track record in Congress as a dealmaker. Some deride her as an ally to corporate interests and the wealthy. Others think that her exit from the race will boost Gallego. The Arizona Republic editorial board said love her or hate her, Kyrsten Sinema's Senate departure hurts Arizona. Sinema's Senate departure hurts Arizona. Sinema has been a meaningful force in the few landmark legislations that Congress has mustered in recent years, including Biden's infrastructure bill, gun safety legislation, and the Inflation Reduction Act. Sinema was at the center of them all,

Starting point is 00:12:15 a broker who worked with and persuaded Republicans to assure passage, the board said. But progressive Democrats will say good riddance. No doubt Sinema brought some of the heat on herself. As a condition of her support of the Inflation Reduction Act, she refused to end the so-called carried interest tax loophole that enables uber-rich private equity and hedge fund managers to pay lower taxes. Sinema benefited greatly from Wall Street political contributions before and after the legislation, the board said. Like her or not, however, Sinema is consequential. Her term has been unquestionably impactful, and her position as a centrist and a broker will be sorely missed.

Starting point is 00:12:55 Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported across Canada, which is nearly double the historic average of 102,000 influenza cases have been reported across Canada, which is nearly double the historic average of 52,000 cases. What can you do this flu season? Talk to your pharmacist or doctor about getting a flu shot. Consider FluCellVax Quad and help

Starting point is 00:13:35 protect yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages six months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at flucellvax.ca. In New York Magazine, Jonathan Chait wrote, Good riddance, Kyrsten Sinema, a plutocratic shill. Sinema is not the only member of Congress who's been involved in legislation with both parties, but she is the only Democrat who incinerated her political career because the causes she chose to fight for are substantively awful and deeply unpopular, Chait said. Sinema opposed letting the government negotiate the cost of Medicare prescription drugs,

Starting point is 00:14:18 ultimately conceding to allow a dramatically smaller version of the reform Biden wanted. Even more amazing, she took a hard line against tax increases on the wealthy. The obvious reason she adopted these deeply unpopular positions on prescription drug pricing and taxing the wealthy is almost certainly that she came to believe them. She seemed to grow close to the ultra-wealthy and was an easy mark for even their most transparently unsound arguments, Chait added. There's plenty of room in the Democratic Party for a bipartisan dealmaker, and Sinema's sob story should not deter anybody from pursuing that profile. There's no room for a transparent shill for the self-serving rich.

Starting point is 00:14:56 In public notice, Noah Berlatsky suggested Sinema dropping out is great news for Dems in general, and Ruben Gallego in particular. Sinema spent her Senate career since her election in 2018 running resolutely to the center and right. She refused to support Biden's call for a filibuster carve-out for abortion rights, Berlatsky wrote. Sinema had a unique ability to draw ire from all parts of the political spectrum. She hoped she might have a path to victory as an independent, but polls and three-way contests showed her trailing both Democratic and Republican opponents. Democrat Gallego was ahead in most of those matchups. He's been running effectively against Sinema for much of her team in preparation for a potential primary, Broadsky said. Gallego is

Starting point is 00:15:40 about the best candidate Democrats could hope for, and Lake is about the worst Republican her party could find. Still, three-way contests are volatile, and Sinema could have made the contest a trickier win for Democrats. Her decision to drop out boosts Gallego. It's probably the most popular thing she's done in her entire Senate term. All right, that is it for the left and the right are saying, which brings us to my take. So there are obviously reasonable criticisms. There are things I find about Kirsten Sinema that are grating or immature, like her celebratory reactions to defying her own caucus. She has tangible issues, like spending an ungodly amount of taxpayer money on private air travel. She seemed to be a bit power-hungry as a boss, with reports she'd demand staff to fix her internet or buy her groceries. I don't like that she very rarely talks to or engages

Starting point is 00:16:43 with the press. Jonathan Chait, under what the left is saying, made a good argument that she's acted like a plutocratic shill. And, like many others, and as I already hinted, I didn't like the dramatic thumbs down on a vote about an issue as significant as the minimum wage. I think it symbolized the dismissive way she's treated some of her voters, like when she changed her party affiliation in the middle of a term. And on net, she seemed to enjoy bringing a certain attitude to her work that I don't think was always helpful. Taken together, all these things shed some light on why she is so disliked across party lines in Arizona. But here's the reality. Kyrsten Sinema actually does her job.

Starting point is 00:17:28 reality. Kyrsten Sinema actually does her job. She legislates. She finds compromise. She makes things happen. She embodies an increasingly rare brand of senator that actually moves the needle on important legislation, a great deal of which has been sensible. The bipartisan immigration bill she helped negotiate would have done more good than bad. The infrastructure bill she helped get passed is so popular that even politicians who didn't vote for it are now taking credit for it. The reforms to the Electoral Count Act were actually the right kind of response to January 6th, unlike trying to remove Trump from the ballot using the 14th Amendment. And I still believe she was right to resist blowing up the filibuster, a decision that I think has been vindicated by just how much this Congress has gotten done, in large part thanks to Sinema with it in place.

Starting point is 00:18:10 I actually think it says a great deal about Sinema that on the day she retires, right-wing firebrands like Carrie Lake and diehard Democratic loyalists like Chris Murphy are both willing to go to bat for her, knowing they will draw ire of the online mob and their supporters. I struggle to think of any serving politician who can draw that kind of response from their peers these days. Just like I said when Mitt Romney retired, there aren't a lot of people like Sinema left in Congress. Some of the reasons Romney was unique are the same reasons Sinema is. She is willing to live in open dissent with her party leadership, she is a moderate, and she is pragmatic enough to make friends and work with the other side. Sinema also stands out for being willing to change her views, which most people

Starting point is 00:18:55 frame as a negative because she's moved in a direction they don't like. Personally, I think it's actually refreshing to see a politician evolve in ways that aren't designed to be advantageous for their political futures. In this era of Twitter politicians who are more obsessed with posting memes and dunking on their opponents for social media clout than writing actual legislation, people like Romney and Sinema were doing real work, and I think it's unambiguously a bad thing that fewer and fewer of them are serving in Congress. I also found Sinema's parting shots quite frightening. Plenty of writers are dunking on her reasons for leaving as concocted and self-serving, but they sound a lot like the reasons given by dozens of other members of Congress who have retired this year. The institution is becoming too extremist, divided, polarized, and unprofessional to get any meaningful work done.

Starting point is 00:19:46 Let me underline that point. The number of members who are saying this while they leave is genuinely startling. It worries me, and it should worry you too. I don't agree with Sinema on everything, obviously. I understand why some people don't find her style or approach very likable, and I think she's opened herself up to plenty of legitimate criticisms. But given where we are as a country, I also think losing her is bad for Congress, bad for us, and a bad sign of where things are heading. We'll be right back after this quick break. We'll be right back after this quick break. All right, that is it for my take, which brings us to your questions answered. This one's from Mary in Falmouth, Massachusetts. Mary said, how do you pick the quotes you include? Sometimes

Starting point is 00:20:40 they're from the mainstream and sometimes they're from sources I've never heard of. When you include the fringier sources, does that mean the mainstream sources aren't saying the same thing? All right, Mary, so that's a good question. We pick the sources we cite because we want to share the best arguments that represent the whole range of opinion on a given topic. After reading through editorials and opinion pieces from across the political spectrum and from a huge span of news outlets, we get a good understanding of what the range of opinion is. And since the right and the left aren't monoliths, that means sampling the subgroups from within each side, so the never-Trump Republicans and the anti-establishment left, the hardcore MAGA right and the progressive socialists,

Starting point is 00:21:21 the Reaganite conservatives and the establishment liberals, and on and on and on. Once we see how each side is aligning themselves into different kinds of opinions, then we pick the articles we feel like articulate those positions the best. Take the Supreme Court ruling on Trump's eligibility, for example. We noticed that we could roughly categorize the right's reactions into three categories. Enthusiastic about the Supreme Court's decision, supportive of the decision but suspicious of their logic, then outright critical of the majority's argument. We chose pieces from Newsweek, National Review, and the New York Times because they represented those viewpoints in a convincing and articulate way. You're right that we often link to lesser-known outlets, but we usually don't do that because all other major players are making similar points. More often than not, it just means that a lesser-known

Starting point is 00:22:10 writer just made the case in a way that we thought was a little clearer or a little more compelling. Lastly, I want to highlight a few of the other factors that go into our decisions. We don't want to over-select from the same sources. So we sometimes choose to quote authors who work for news outlets that we haven't quoted in a while. Other times we want to get a local voice for local stories, such as when we quoted Nancy Kafer from the Detroit Free Press after the Michigan primaries. All in all, it's a good idea not to assume consensus from the mainstream press based on the authors that we choose to quote. based on the authors that we choose to quote.

Starting point is 00:22:52 All right, that is it for our reader question, which brings us to our Under the Radar section. Several major cities are opting to reintroduce criminal penalties for low-level crime or ramping up enforcement across the country. In Oregon, lawmakers moved to reintroduce criminal penalties for the possession of hard drugs, ending the state's three-year decriminalization experiment passed by voters in 2020. In Washington, D.C., the city is reversing progressive reforms with a major public safety bill that raises penalties for gun crimes and theft after the city hit a 25-year high in homicides. And in New York, Governor Kathy Hochul, the Democrat, is dispatching the National Guard and state police to the subways following a spate of crime. We've got links to those stories in today's episode description, and you can go check them out there. All right, next up is our numbers section. Kyrsten Sinema's net approval rating among Arizona Democrats before she switched her party affiliation to Independent was plus one, according to the Morning Consult. Her net approval rating among Arizona Democrats after she switched

Starting point is 00:23:54 her party affiliation was negative 19. The change in Sinema's net approval rating among all Arizona voters after she switched her party affiliation to independent was zero. The amount raised by Sinema's campaign in Q4 2023 was $595,000. The amount raised by Ruben Gallego's campaign in Q4 2023 was $3.3 million. The amount raised by Carrie Lake's campaign in Q4 2023 was $2.1 million. Gallego's lead over Cary Lake in a head-to-head matchup, according to a February 24 poll, was 47 to 37 percent. That poll came from Nobel Predictive Insights. Gallego, Lake, and Sinema's poll numbers, respectively, was 34, 31, and 23 percent if there were a three-way matchup prior to Sinema's exit from the race. All right, that is it for our numbers section,

Starting point is 00:24:51 which brings us last but not least to our Have a Nice Day story today. Jenny Hazard's heart sank when she discovered that Bear, her 16-year-old Shih Tzu, had disappeared from their backyard. After about 15 to 20 minutes, I was just in tears, Hazard said. In a desperate attempt to find him, she posted a plea for help on social media. Hours later, she got a text that Bear was safe and happy, having a night out at the local bar. Hazard was relieved and more than a little amused. They took good care of him, and I guess he was pretty popular, Hazard said.

Starting point is 00:25:24 Fox 6 Milwaukee has the story, and there's a link to it in today's episode description all right everybody that is it for today's podcast as I mentioned at the top if you want to get tomorrow's Friday edition you got to go to readtangle.com and become a member don't forget we're coming to New York City on April 17th for our event and also keep an ear out for a big announcement coming early next week, especially for all you podcast listeners. We've got something special coming your way. I'm excited to reveal a little bit more about it and we'll leave it there. Have a good weekend. Peace. Our podcast is written by me, Isaac Saul, and edited and engineered by John Wall. Peace. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75. And if you're looking for more from Tangle, please go to readtangle.com and check out our website.

Starting point is 00:26:43 Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, Thanks for watching! history and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported across Canada, which is nearly double the historic average of 52,000 cases. What can you do this flu season? Talk to your pharmacist or doctor about getting a flu shot. Consider FluCellVax Quad and help protect yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages six months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at FluCellVax.ca.

Tangle - Kyrsten Sinema retires.

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