Politics

Sinema Caught Again: ‘Arizona Is The Meth-Lab Of Democracy’

Virginia Kruta Associate Editor
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Arizona Democratic Senate candidate Kyrsten Sinema has had a tough week. Just days after video surfaced of Sinema calling Arizonans crazy, another video began making the rounds — this one showing her referring to her home state as “the meth lab of democracy.”

Republican Rep. Martha McSally, who is running against Sinema for the seat vacated by retiring Republican Sen. Jeff Flake, tweeted the video clip of Sinema speaking at Netroots Nation, a liberal conference that took place in August.

“As we see in this very quote,” Sinema says, “the states are the laboratories of democracy. And my state, Arizona, is clearly the meth lab of democracy.”

LOS ANGELES, CA - MARCH 10: Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema speaks onstage at The Human Rights Campaign 2018 Los Angeles Gala Dinner at JW Marriott Los Angeles at L.A. LIVE on March 10, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Rich Fury/Getty Images for Human Rights Campaign (HRC))

LOS ANGELES, CA – MARCH 10: Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema speaks onstage at The Human Rights Campaign 2018 Los Angeles Gala Dinner at JW Marriott Los Angeles at L.A. LIVE on March 10, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Rich Fury/Getty Images for Human Rights Campaign (HRC))

Pausing for cheers from the audience, Sinema then went on to say that she had borrowed the quote from Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.” She was referencing a clip from 2010 when former host Jon Stewart launched a diatribe against the state over legistlation he considered to be backward.

From the Phoenix New Times:

… the Arizona Legislature passed a series of controversial bills last week that seem to have the rest of the country talking about the Grand Canyon State like it’s full of gun-toting, brown-bashing, birther lunatics.

The “birther bill,” legislation that allows gun owners to carry a concealed weapons without a permit, and SB 1070 — the controversial immigration bill signed by Governor Jan Brewer last week — are the bills in question. And the combination of the three in the same week led Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show, to call Arizona “the meth lab of democracy.”

Stewart routinely used the phrase to ridicule other states when they adopted legislation that he felt was unacceptable.

RELATED: Real Clear Politics Is Predicting A Red Wave In The Senate

The most recent poll shows McSally with the edge, leading Sinema 47 percent to 41 percent.

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