Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, said he sympathized with the protesters’ message — particularly those advocating for a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants — but disapproved of their tactics.
“I strongly support the right to peaceful protest,” Mr. Schumer said. “I started my career protesting the Vietnam War, and I get protested all the time. I understand, and so feel for the immigrant community and what they’re going through. But following someone into a bathroom and recording them — that’s over the line.”
In her own statement, Ms. Sinema condemned the bathroom encounter as “wholly inappropriate” and suggested that it was, at least in part, a result of the overheated debate that has surrounded Mr. Biden’s agenda.
“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 said.
Ms. Sinema has been repeatedly criticized by the progressive wing of her party, including by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, who wrote on Twitter that Ms. Sinema was “trying to tank millions of people’s chances at healthcare.”
The senator has emerged as one of the focal points of an intense lobbying campaign by the White House and party leaders because in an evenly divided Senate, Democrats need every one of their members to push through the social policy and climate bill. That gives Ms. Sinema effective veto power over the package.
She has privately told her colleagues that she is averse to the corporate and individual tax increases that Democrats have proposed to pay for the plan. She is also pushing to cut the cost of the package and resisting a leading proposal to lower prescription drug prices.