Sixty-four percent of Democrats believe Senator Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) should resign amid her recent health issues that have left her absent from the Senate for weeks, according to a new YouGov/Economist poll.
The poll, which was conducted between April 15 and 18, found 65 percent of Americans believe Feinstein should resign after being told she has been absent from Congress for more than a month for medical reasons.
The 89-year-old senator has missed weeks of work since being diagnosed with shingles in March. Feinstein recently requested that Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer ask the Senate to allow another Democratic senator to temporarily fill her role as Judiciary Committee chair. Feinstein’s absence has paralyzed the committee, leaving Democrats unable to advance judicial nominees to a vote by the full chamber without her vote.
However, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell has said Senate Republicans “will not take part in sidelining a temporary absent colleague off the committee just so Democrats can force through their very worst nominees.”
Forty-one percent of Americans said old age hurts members of Congress by making their work more difficult, according to the YouGov/Economist poll. Just 19 percent said age helps by bringing wisdom and experience. Twenty-four percent said age does not make a difference.
Fifty-four percent of Democrats have a favorable view of Feinstein, while 23 percent have an unfavorable view. Of Democrats who believe old age brings wisdom and experience to members of Congress, a whopping 74 percent still say Feinstein should retire.
“The calls for her to retire do not appear to be motivated by dislike for her, or a partisan desire to drive the powerful Democrat out of Congress,” the pollster said in a news release, pointing to results from the survey showing even 64 percent of people who have a strongly or somewhat favorable opinion of her agree she should resign.
Of those who have a strongly or somewhat unfavorable view of the senator, 78 percent believe she should resign.
The 89-year-old senator said earlier this year that she would not seek reelection in 2024 after serving more than 30 years in the Senate. The prospect of an early retirement has yielded mixed reviews from Democrats.
Democratic Representatives Ro Khanna of California and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman of New York have called on Feinstein to resign.
“She’s had a very long and stellar career, you know, but missing that many votes, stopping us from moving forward with our judge nominations,” Bowman said.
However, Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.) and Tammy Baldwin (D., Wis.) have come to Feinstein’s defense and suggested it is within her right to decide when to step away.
“She’s a team player, and she’s an extraordinary member of the Senate,” Gillibrand said during a recent interview on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday. “It’s her right. She’s been voted by her state to be senator for six years. She has the right, in my opinion, to decide when she steps down.”
“I think that is really an important, a responsible thing to do during her absence, because we have President Biden’s nominees waiting for hearings and votes and we want to keep that moving. But I wish her well and hope she returns to the Senate very soon,” Baldwin said during an appearance on Meet the Press.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday that Feinstein’s decision is hers to make. One day earlier, Jean-Pierre said it was “flat wrong” for Republicans to block Feinstein’s request to be temporarily replaced on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“It is flat wrong to seek partisan advantage from health issues of a colleague,” she said. “The American people reject that kind of scorched-earth type of behavior or approach to governing.”
“When it comes to the future, her future, that is something that she gets to make and should be allowed to do that,” Jean-Pierre said.