Mitch McConnell calls Kyrsten Sinema the 'most effective first-term senator' he's seen and praises her defense of the filibuster

• Mitch McConnell praised Kyrsten Sinema in introductory remarks before her speech at the University of Louisville.
• He said she's "the most effective first-term senator I've seen in my time in the Senate."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday heaped praise on Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, saying she's the "most effective first-term senator" he's seen during his 37 years in the upper chamber.

Sinema delivered a speech on "The Future of Political Discourse and the Importance of Bipartisanship" at the University of Louisville's McConnell Center, named after the senior Kentucky senator, who introduced Sinema at the event.

"I've only known Kyrsten for four years, but she is, in my view — and I've told her this — the most effective first-term senator I've seen in my time in the Senate," the Republican leader said. "She is, today, what we have too few of in the Democratic Party: a genuine moderate, and a dealmaker."

McConnell went on to commend Sinema for her opposition to ending the so-called filibuster in the Senate, which requires 60 affirmative votes to advance legislation. In recent years, both the Democratic and Republican parties have used the tool to block legislation favored by the other party.

As President Joe Biden took office last year and Democrats won a slim majority in the Senate, Sinema and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia were the only two Democratic senators who vowed not to eliminate the filibuster to approve legislation put forward by their party.

They broke from their party and voted against ending the filibuster amid a push to enact voting rights legislation in January, a fact that McConnell noted in his introductory remarks.

"That was not fashionable in the Democratic Party in the last year and a half," he said. "It took one hell of a lot of guts for Kyrsten Sinema to stand up and say, 'I'm not gonna break the institution in order to achieve a short term goal.'"

"If you break the institution, you fundamentally change the country," he added. "And I can tell you, the institution might well have been broken, but for our guest today."

McConnell also alluded to the pressure he faced from former President Donald Trump to end the filibuster during his presidency, when McConnell served as majority leader.

"Some of you may recall, the former president would harangue me on virtually a weekly basis about trying to lower the threshold in the Senate from 60 to 51," he said. "In other words, turn the Senate into the House."

He also spoke highly of Sinema for her involvement over the last year in several bipartisan initiatives, including bills to boost the country's infrastructure, improve gun safety, and strengthen the semiconductor industry.

"Every single thing that we've had an opportunity to work together on, she's been a leader of, and involved in, and is extraordinarily effective," he said.

Sinema, in her remarks, thanked McConnell and acknowledged that she's forged an unlikely friendship with the Republican leader since she joined the Senate four years ago.

"In today's partisan Washington, it might shock some that a Democratic senator would consider the Republican leader of the Senate her friend. But back home in Arizona, we don't view life through a partisan lens," Sinema said.

Throughout her speech, Sinema stressed the importance of bipartisan dealmaking, touted her efforts on bipartisan legislation, and defended her approach to maintaining the Senate filibuster.

"The Senate was designed to be a place that moves more slowly, to cool down those passions, to think more strategically and long-term about the legislation before us. And most importantly, it was designed to require comity, to require people to compromise and work together so the legislation we pass represents the viewpoints of a broad spectrum of the country, not just the passion of the moment," Sinema said.

Some of Sinema's fellow Democratic colleagues, who have aimed to pass legislation on voting rights, criminal justice reform, and other party initiatives, have heavily criticized her for upholding the filibuster.

"If you don't fit in in today's Washington, trust me, they want to kick you out. But I've never really wanted to fit in, not in Washington, and not anywhere else. And I was not elected to play politics. I was elected to achieve lasting results and to solve the problems that matter most to the Arizonans that I'm honored to serve," she said.

Sinema has been polling poorly among her Democratic constituents in Arizona, who say they disapprove of the job she's doing. A new poll commissioned by the AARP this month found that a majority of Arizona voters on both sides of the political aisle — 54% — view Sinema unfavorably.