Rep. Martha McSally, the Republican running for retiring Sen. Jeff Flake’s Arizona Senate seat, accused her Democratic opponent of supporting treason during a contentious Monday night debate.

McSally referred to a comment that Rep. Krysten Sinema made during a recently unearthed 2003 interview in which she advocated her anti-war positions and offhandedly condoned the libertarian radio host’s suggestion that he join the Taliban.

McSally has seized on Sinema’s history of progressive activism, painting her as a left-wing Democrat masquerading as a centrist.

Taking a page from President Donald Trump’s playbook, Rep. Martha McSally, the Republican running for retiring Sen. Jeff Flake’s Arizona Senate seat, accused her Democratic opponent, Rep. Krysten Sinema, of supporting treason during a contentious Monday night debate.

A Trump-endorsed former Air Force colonel, McSally referred to a comment that Sinema, who was an anti-war activist during law school in the early 2000s, made during a 2003 interview with a libertarian radio show host. The interview was uncovered in a CNN report last week.

In response to host Ernest Hancock’s hypothetical proposition – following a long and confusing rant – that he “go fight in the Taliban army,” Sinema said, “Fine. I don’t care if you want to do that, go ahead.”

Sinema quickly pivoted back to her anti-war argument.

“What we’re talking about here are two different things,” she said. “When you say, ‘We owe something to the world,’ my definition of owing something to the world does not involve war and destruction.”

During Monday’s debate, McSally accused Sinema of endorsing treason.

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“I want to ask right now whether you’re going to apologize to the veterans and me for saying it’s OK to commit treason, Kyrsten,” she said.

Sinema called the question “ridiculous” and accused McSally of “smearing” her.

A spokeswoman for Sinema’s campaign told CNN last week that Sinema’s comment was “clearly offhand and an effort to get back on the topic of why she opposed the war.”

McSally has seized on Sinema’s history of progressive activism, painting her opponent as a left-wing Democrat masquerading as a centrist, and attempted to contrast it with her record of military service.

“While we were in harm’s way, she was protesting our troops in a pink tutu,” McSally says in an attack ad that includes a photo of Sinema in a pink outfit at a protest.

Earlier this year, Trump also accused Democrats of committing treason when they did not clap during his State of the Union address. The White House later said the president was “obviously joking.”