Sinema knocks top Democrats over Arizona border funding

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) knocked the White House and top Democrats in Congress over the latest distribution of border funds in a new interview, after New York received more funding than her home state along the southern border.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) announced in June that New York City would receive $104.6 million in federal funds to help care for the influx of migrants in the Big Apple, angering Sinema and border-state Democrats. 

“It’s fairly obvious,” Sinema said in an interview with Politico published Wednesday. “I don’t know if you noticed, but the announcement about that $104 million came out first, in a joint press release from Schumer and Jeffries — not from the White House or from FEMA.”

“Now, how did that happen?” she added sarcastically, according to Politico.

The Arizona senator also argued that it would now be even more difficult to secure the additional border funding the Biden administration has requested.

“Now that a yeoman’s amount of this funding has gone to the interior of the country, not to border communities, that lift to get another tranche of this funding — to get more of it approved — is even heavier than before,” Sinema told Politico. “To be clear: It was very heavy in December.”

She similarly slammed the distribution of border funding at an event in Yuma, Ariz., earlier this month, saying she was “livid.”

“What we’re experiencing here in Arizona is matched only by what folks are experiencing in southern Texas,” Sinema said at the time. “Those are the two communities that are experiencing this crisis. The rest of the country is seeing some elements of it, but we are facing the brunt.”