Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell showered praise on Kyrsten Sinema at an event where they touted their “friendship,” and the Arizona Democratic senator reciprocated and spoke of how they “share the same values.”

McConnell and Sinema appeared together at the University of Louisville’s McConnell Center (named after the Kentucky senator) for a lecture on bipartisanship and the future of political discourse. The minority leader gave Sinema’s introduction at the event, saying “I’ve only known Kyrsten for four years, but she is, in my view — and I’ve told her this — the most effective first-term senator I’ve seen in my time in the Senate.”

“She is, today, what we have too few of in the Democratic Party: a genuine moderate, and a dealmaker,” McConnell said. The glowing review continued as McConnell called Sinema “extraordinarily effective” and he especially praised her for opposing the push by her fellow Democrats for eliminating the filibuster rule and ending the 60 vote threshold for the advancement of legislation.

“She protects the institution of the Senate,” McConnell said. “It took one hell of a lot of guts for Kyrsten Sinema to stand up and say ‘I’m not going to break the institution in order to achieve a short-term goal.'”

Sinema reciprocated these warm remarks when she took the podium next, saying “At first glance, Senator McConnell and I have relatively little — or some could even say nothing — in common…Perhaps most obviously, we come from opposing political parties.”

Despite our apparent differences, Senator McConnell and I have forged a friendship, one that is rooted in our commonalities, including our pragmatic approach to legislating, our respect for the Senate as an institution, our love for our home states and a dogged determination on behalf of our constituents. In today’s partisan Washington, it might shock some that a Democratic senator would consider the Republican leader of the Senate her friend. But back home in Arizona, we don’t view life through a partisan lens. Arizonans understand that while we may not agree on every issue, we do share the same values.

Watch above via McConnell Center.

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