KJZZ’s Friday NewsCap revisits some of the biggest stories of the week from Arizona and beyond.
To talk to about Sen. Kyrsten Sinema saying goodbye to the U.S. Senate, Gov. Katie Hobbs wanting to do away with abortion reporting requirements and more, The Show sat down with former state schools Superintendent Jaime Molera of Molera Alvarez.
Full conversation
MARK BRODIE: So let’s start with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. This is a Senate tradition. When you are leaving the chamber, you get to sort of give a farewell speech there. And one of the things that stood out to a lot of folks was — and we heard a little bit of it just a moment ago — was really a continued strong defense of the filibuster, which she very staunchly defended during her time in the Senate.
JAIME MOLERA: Correct. She, I think, came to that position in large measure because of her friendship and her closeness with Jeff Flake. When Jeff Flake was a U.S. senator, he too defended cloture and believed that you have to have the 60 members in order to advance legislation.
And I think Kyrsten over the years started to realize and became a big fan of that because she felt like that was the only way to create — and a lot of her speech reflected this — that was the only way to create true bipartisan and meaningful legislation that people can rally around. When you have the opportunity for just a simple majority to pass these things, then you would get wild swings in with whatever party was in control.
We’re going to see that with Republicans coming back. Republicans are probably — they fought the Democrats from having it. Now, I think a lot of Republicans are going to say, “Well, we should have that in order to advance our agenda.”
BRODIE: Do you think the filibuster stands?
MOLERA: I do. I do. I think there’s enough legislators or senators — because remember, you only need a few to block it. And that’s where Kyrsten got into trouble. She was one of the very few, maybe just two or three Democrats that said, “No, we’re not going to, go along with that.”
And so, when she took that position and it kept the Democrats from moving forward a lot of the more progressive base’s issues that they wanted to see happen, Ruben Gallego jumps into the primary. And that created the structure, which she thought in large measure that her popularity was bigger than what it was and that, “Oh, I’m just gonna move to independent. That’s not going to be a problem.”
But it was a problem. As we know that when you don’t have that base of support, it gets very, very difficult to get reelected.
BRODIE: So looking when we look back on Sen. Sinema’s term in the Senate — when she was elected, a lot of folks said she could maybe be the next John McCain or sort of a maverick having the seat for basically as long as she wanted it.
When we look back — we have a little distance from the end of her term — what do you think people will be saying about Kyrsten Sinema’s one term in the U.S. Senate?
MOLERA: Well, the one thing I would tell you about that — I’ve been asked that question a lot about her similarities to John McCain. But I knew John McCain fairly well. And one of the things that people forget, he was a very strong Republican. He was a partisan. And so when he ran in the primaries, a lot of times he was attacked by the media for being so draconian in his views.
Remember, he talked about “building the dang wall. Get the wall built.” And so I just think that he understood that you have to understand the politics of your party in order to, of course, win the primary but then put yourself in a good position to win the general, which he did six times.
BRODIE: Yeah. At least for the Senate, not to mention the races he won for the U.S. House and won, of course, the presidential nomination as a Republican.
MOLERA: So her legacy, it’ll be mixed. I think she did a number of things that even Mark Kelly came out and talked about and was laudatory to her. I think, though, that a lot of times history is in kind of just one term.
Again with Jeff Flake, he still is derided by a lot of Republicans in the base. So I’m not sure the Democrats are going to look back with a lot of favor.
BRODIE: Not a lot of fondness there, maybe?
MOLERA: Not a lot of fondness.
BRODIE: I mean, she really kind of ticked off a lot of Democrats in the state, to the point that she ultimately left the party.
MOLERA: Correct, correct. And I think that leaves a bad taste in a lot of the Democrats’ mouths. But I think her ability to be successful and have an impact — I don’t think she’s going to come back in any way, shape or form as an elected leader. I think her days, that’s over. I know you should never say never, but it’s going to be very difficult for her — unless she becomes a Republican and all of a sudden has a metamorphosis.
But I don’t see her wanting to run for some kind of a local office. But having said that, she’s still going to have a big voice. I think people still respect her. I think the business community, by and large, has liked her notion of trying to bring that kind of bipartisanship together that a lot of people like.
So she’ll still be a force in Arizona and nationally as well.
BRODIE: So speaking — I guess not really of bipartisanship — let me ask you about the America Fest event happening in downtown Phoenix last night. A lot of speakers. President-elect Trump will be there on Sunday.
I would imagine that for an event like this, you have in just a couple of weeks for the Republicans, you’re taking control basically of the federal government. Your preferred presidential candidate will be taking the oath of office in three or four weeks from now. I would imagine this is like it’s going to be a pretty celebratory event down there.
MOLERA: Oh, absolutely. I think that’s going to be a lot of folks saying, “See, I told you so.” And Turning Point has led the effort. This America Fest is being organized by Turning Point, Charlie Kirk’s organization.
And so I think that when you win Arizona — which was supposed to be a state that a lot of folks said Harris was going to wind up until about a week before the election, and (Trump) ended up winning by a 5.5% margin, almost 200,000 votes — then I think they deserved to have a little bit of a celebration. And I think Trump is smart to continue to recognize that Arizona has been a very strong state for him.
It’s interesting because it gives a lot of voice to these folks that I think haven’t had a strong voice. I mean, we lost our U.S. senators, but they’re going to come in and gloat a little bit. And I think with the folks that are coming in nationally, it puts a lot of emphasis on the president saying, “See, if you just back what I do, we can be successful like we were in Arizona.”
BRODIE: Is any of that tempered — maybe not even at that particular event, but just sort of among the the GOP, the MAGA base broadly — with what’s going on on Capitol Hill right now, where President-elect Trump had a preferred government funding bill which the House could not pass, did not pass last night — is any of that tempered by the realities of actually governing now?
MOLERA: Well, yes and no. And understand that I think a lot of the reason why President Trump and through his surrogates like Elon Musk were very critical of the original proposal was that it didn’t do anything about the debt ceiling. President Trump has said, “Move it back to past my presidency or eliminate it altogether.”
Now that seems kind of antithetical for Republicans to hear that, and some of the hard right did not like that. But for him to do the kinds of tax reductions that he’s talked about — some have talked about that it would be a hit of about $8 trillion over 10 years — then having that debt ceiling would make that almost impossible.
And so when you get that barrier out of the way, it allows him and his new administration to really go after and be aggressive and rally the Republicans around the proposals that they probably could get through Congress.
But the debt ceiling is that cap, right? That’s going to be difficult to do. So I think he wants to come in and make sure that that major pathway is cleared so that they can focus on the things that he campaigned over.
