Multiple Groups File Ethics Complaints Against Kyrsten Sinema For Abusing Staff

Multiple different groups have now filed ethics complaints against Independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema for allegedly abusing her staffers by having them run personal errands for her while getting paid through the government. This is something that has gotten lawmakers in trouble in the past, as these staffers are only allowed to work on official business, not personal items that Sinema wants in her life. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains what's happening.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Dozens of independent groups have now filed ethics complaints against independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema. Dozens of groups have signed onto a letter begging the Senate Ethics Committee to please investigate Kyrsten Sinema for possibly abusing her staff. Now, I'm not talking about physically abusing her staff, right? She's not throwing staplers at people. What happened is that in December, shortly before Christmas, there was a massive report from the Daily Beast where they had uncovered a document and the document was for staffers of Kyrsten Sinema Cinema's office. For the record, they deny that this is a legitimate document. Um, the Daily Beast, they stand by the reporting. So it is a, we say, she says, who says whatever, but according to this document that the Daily Beast had staffers working for Kirsten Sinema were informed that, hey, you're gonna have to do personal stuff for her too. You're gonna get paid through your congressional salary, right?

The taxpayers are gonna cover the bill, but you're gonna have to do things like go grocery shopping for her. You're gonna have to make repair Carl calls for her house. You're gonna have to do all these little personal errands, which by the way, members of Congress have gotten in a lot of trouble in the past, I mean, in the past 20 years, for using their staff in this manner. Because again, these are individuals who are getting paid with our tax dollars and they're out there according to this report. One of them did. Well, not one, no, not one of them one time, excuse me. Um, but there is one documented instance where, a staffer had to go get her groceries and was told by a higher up staffer, like, don't worry. She'll Cash app you the money after you come back with the groceries. So not only according to this report was cinema abusing the staff, having them do things they legally weren't allowed to do, but she also wasn't giving them the money to do it.

Like, go buy my groceries and when you return with the groceries, then I will pay you back. I mean, that's, that's even worse than just sitting them with your money to go get the groceries, cuz like now they have to spend their money on groceries for you, hoping that when they get back you're gonna, you know, send them that, that Venmo. Um, that's horrible. And if this is in fact what Kirsten Smo was doing, she does need to be held accountable for this and punished accordingly. But most importantly, what these groups are saying is we've got all of these allegations. Somebody needs to investigate whether they're real or not, because if they're not real, we need to know that too. If the Daily Beast put out a story that was a complete

Fabrication, we need to know that. We need to know if we can trust them, and Sinema needs to know if she can sue them for slander. There's all kinds of things that every party involved needs to know, but if the Senate Ethics Committee doesn't take that step and actually do the investigation, we may never know the truth.