Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) announced in February she would not run for reelection in 2024 after facing mounting pressure to relinquish the seat she has held the last three decades.
The decision was welcomed by progressives, who have long felt the senator’s bipartisan streak no longer fit the political times. But now, some within her party are calling for her to flat-out resign before the end of her term, expressing concern that she is not up to the job.
RO KHANNA CALLS ON DIANNE FEINSTEIN TO RESIGN OVER PROLONGED ABSENCE FROM SENATE
Feinstein, 89, has been absent from the Senate since she was hospitalized with a case of shingles in March. She is performing her duties at home in California while she recuperates but cannot vote from afar.
The absence — she has missed 60 of the 82 votes taken in the Senate this year — has put a strain on Democrats, who lack an outright majority in the upper chamber without her present.
But the outrage has centered on the delays her absence is causing for President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees in particular.
The Judiciary Committee, where she’s long held a seat, is deadlocked without her vote, meaning Democrats can’t advance the president’s judges to the floor without Republican support.
The committee has been forced to cancel weeks of markup sessions, and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the panel's chairman, has publicly lamented that her absence is throwing a wrench into what had been a breakneck pace for judicial confirmations.
“I can’t consider nominees in these circumstances because a tie vote is a losing vote in committee,” Durbin told CNN. “We still have some nominees left on the calendar that we can work on … but we have more in the wings that we would like to process.”
Feinstein in March told reporters she hoped to come back “later this month,” yet as senators return to Washington from a two-week recess on Monday, she will continue to be absent.
Although Democrats in the Senate have been collegial, giving the senator space to evaluate her health, the frustration boiled over publicly on Tuesday in liberal circles.
Jon Lovett, a former speechwriter for President Barack Obama and host of the popular Pod Save America podcast, cited Durbin’s comments in arguing her absence is cause for her to step down.
“As sad as it is to see someone who has had an incredibly storied and long and important career and has done a lot of good for this state, I think what the people around Dianne Feinstein are doing, being part of this farce of having a lack of a senator in such an important job, is really wrong,” he said.
“Dianne Feinstein should no longer be in the Senate. She should resign, and more people should be calling on her to resign,” he added.
The calls have largely come from progressive pundits — writers at publications ranging from the New Republic to Jezebel made similar pleas.
But they took on greater weight on Wednesday when two House Democrats, Reps. Ro Khanna (CA) and Dean Phillips (MN), became the first lawmakers to call for her ouster.
“While she has had a lifetime of public service, it is obvious she can no longer fulfill her duties,” Khanna, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, tweeted. “Not speaking out undermines our credibility as elected representatives of the people.”
Feinstein broke her silence on the matter in a Wednesday evening statement that addressed the controversy and reiterated her intention to return to the Senate.
“When I was first diagnosed with shingles, I expected to return by the end of the March work period. Unfortunately, my return to Washington has been delayed due to continued complications related to my diagnosis," she said.
“I intend to return as soon as possible once my medical team advises that it’s safe for me to travel," she added. "In the meantime, I remain committed to the job and will continue to work from home in San Francisco."
She offered something of a compromise — to step aside from the Judiciary Committee temporarily, with another Democratic senator taking her place. For that scenario to occur, it would take a vote of the full Senate, where it would have to clear a 60-vote threshold if senators do not approve it by unanimous consent.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Wednesday night that he would honor Feinstein's wish and ask the Senate to replace her on the panel, a move that is unlikely to satisfy progressives.
Mike Madrid, a GOP consultant from California, is not surprised the complaints are coming from the Left flank of the Democratic Party.
Feinstein's penchant for working across the aisle has long upset liberals who want the seat in the hands of a Democrat who will tow the party line.
The senator drew anger, for example, for lauding her GOP colleagues during the confirmation hearings of now-Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett in 2020, prompting progressives to urge her to step down from her top spot on the Judiciary Committee, which she did later that year.
“There's just no appetite for that anymore in the Democratic Party, especially with this much younger, more combative generation,” he told the Washington Examiner.
But Madrid believes the underlying criticism, that she is not fit to serve, is warranted.
Feinstein has suffered from a drip-drip of stories painting the picture of a senator who is in mental decline, forgetting conversations she's had with staff and even that she knows longtime colleagues. She revived those concerns when she appeared unaware that her office had sent out the press release announcing her retirement from the Senate.
“Look, Democrats are as hyperpartisan as Republicans, and if this were a competitive state, they would keep putting her up the same way Republicans would keep putting her up for reelection,” Madrid said. “That's not the case here. The Democrats are not going to lose this seat. It's a matter of performing the functions of the job now, and that needs to be remedied.”
“It's not partisan. It's not ideological. It's literally doing the functionary components of the job, like showing up,” he added.
Yet Steve Maviglio, a Sacramento-based Democratic strategist, believes the arguments are being made in bad faith, calling the pleas for her resignation a “tired chorus from the usual suspects” on the Left.
“If AOC fell off her scooter and broke her arm and was out for three weeks, they wouldn't be calling for her resignation. It's just an excuse,” he told the Washington Examiner.
“I didn't hear the same voices calling for Fetterman to resign or Lujan to resign when they had a stroke. It’s singularly focused on Sen. Feinstein because of her political philosophy,” he added.
If Feinstein were to step down eventually, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) has promised to appoint a black woman to serve out the remainder of her term.
That could benefit Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), the only person of color running for Feinstein’s seat. Lee, a progressive herself, has staked her candidacy in part on the need to bring more diversity to the Senate.
Not all progressives are calling for Feinstein to resign. Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA), another House Democrat running to replace her, floated the possibility of removing her from the Judiciary Committee the day before Feinstein's statement.
“I think the solution on the judges portion is to have her removed from her committee if she's not able to do her service,” she told MSNBC on Tuesday. “And I think that’s something she can talk about with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. I think they’ll chart a path together. But of course I wish Sen. Feinstein well.”
Porter made waves as the first Democrat to enter the race to replace Feinstein, a move that came a full month before the senator made her intentions known. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the third Democrat in the race, followed suit two weeks after Porter.
Although Lee waited, at least publicly, for Feinstein to announce her retirement before launching her campaign for Senate, the preemptive moves contributed to the sense that Feinstein was being forced out of the upper chamber.
Even former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) endorsed Schiff ahead of time, contingent upon Feinstein deciding to retire.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Maviglio doesn’t make much of the decisions, noting that “all the tell-tale signs were there” that Feinstein would retire. But he does feel that this week's calls for her to step down show a lack of respect for a female pioneer who broke gender barriers and took an early stand on issues such as gay marriage.
“I mean, let her exit gracefully,” he said. “She’s done a tremendous amount of service — way ahead of her time, was progressive before most progressives were even born. So, let her serve out her term. She deserves that.”