Senator Kyrsten Sinema was targeted by another group of protesters on Monday, this time at Reagan National Airport after she landed in Washington D.C. for this week's Senate session.
It was the second time in four days the Arizona Democrat was a target for party activists.
Video footage showed Sinema on her cell phone as she made her way through Reagan National Airport, where a group of protesters were awaiting her arrival on a flight from Arizona.
At least a dozen people surround her, many filming her on their mobile phones. A TSA agent is seen walking behind the senator.
The protesters asked her what she would cut from the Biden's $3.5 trillion budget package of social programs that span education, healthcare and the environment. Sinema did not answer, according to an NBC reporter on the scene.
President Joe Biden on Monday defended the activists who publicly confronted Sinema and her fellow moderate Senator Joe Manchin.
Sinema and Manchin have become public targets of liberal ire and fixtures in popular culture as they hold out against the $3.5 trillion price tag, saying it's too high to get their vote.
Both senators have been publicly confronted by activists, including a group who followed Sinema into a bathroom at Arizona State University on Friday, where she was teaching a class. Sinema was also lampooned on Saturday Night Live over the weekend. Meawhile, a flotilla of kayak-activists recently swarmed Manchin's D.C. houseboat to pressure the senator, who came out to chat with them.
Both encounters were filmed by the activists, who posted the footage to social media.
Senator Kyrsten Sinema was targeted by another group of protesters who were waiting for her at Reagan National Airport after she landed in Washington D.C. for this week's Senate session
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema just arrived at DCA, where a small number of protestors were waiting. They asked her what she would cut from the larger human infrastructure package. Sinema did not answer. pic.twitter.com/4EXCGDxwIl
— Kyle Stewart (@KyleAlexStewart) October 4, 2021
At least a dozen people surround Sen. Sinema many filming her on their mobile phones, while a TSA agent is visible behind the senator
Biden said he didn't think the actions of the activists were appropriate but shrugged them off, saying it's 'part of the process.'
'I don't think they're appropriate tactics but it happens to everybody. The only people doesn't happen to people who have Secret Service standing around them. So it's part of the process,' he said.
Sinema released a statement blasting the activists from Friday, saying it 'was not legitimate protest.' She noted the activists interrupted a class she teaches at the university.
Sinema said they had used deception to enter a locked building.
'My students were unfairly and unlawfully victimized. This is wholly inappropriate,' she said in a statement.
'It is the duty of elected leaders to avoid fostering an environment in which honestly-held policy disagreements serve as the basis for vitriol — raising the temperature in political rhetoric and creating a permission structure for unacceptable behavior.'
She added that she had previously met with the group behind Sunday's protest and would continue to talk to Arizonans with a diverse range of views.
'It is unacceptable for activist organizations to instruct their members to jeopardize themselves by engaging in unlawful activities such as
