It’s time for @SenFeinstein to resign. We need to put the country ahead of personal loyalty. While she has had a lifetime of public service, it is obvious she can no longer fulfill her duties. Not speaking out undermines our credibility as elected representatives of the people.
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) April 12, 2023
Feinstein, who at 89 is the oldest member of the Senate, has not cast a vote since Feb. 16 — just days after announcing that she will not run for reelection. And while she underscored in her announcement that she intends to serve the rest of her term — which ends in 2024 — she has not returned to Capitol Hill after being hospitalized for shingles treatment in early March.
Because Democrats hold a slim two-vote majority in the Senate, Feinstein’s absence has affected the process to confirm President Biden’s judicial nominees — just one of the few pieces of the president’s agenda that congressional Democrats can act on in this session, given that the House is in Republicans’ hands. When asked in a CNN interview Monday if the absence of Feinstein, who has missed at least 60 votes this year, affects the process on Capitol Hill, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard J. Durbin III (D-Ill.) said, “Of course it does.”
In a statement to The Washington Post, Khanna said Feinstein is slowing Democrats’ attempts to protect their priorities in courts nationwide.
“We have a crisis in the judiciary right now when women’s rights and voting rights are under assault,” Khanna said. “We have a Senator who is missing vote after vote to confirm judges who will uphold reproductive rights. [In] this historic moment where we must stand up to extremist judges, Senator Feinstein needs to step aside.”
Jon Lovett, a former speechwriter for President Barack Obama and a Democratic commentator, shared sentiments similar to Khanna’s on his podcast Tuesday, saying Feinstein is preventing Democrats “from being able to confirm judges.”
“As sad as it is to see someone who has had an incredibly storied and important career … [Feinstein] should no longer be in the Senate,” Lovett said. “She should resign.”
Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) retweeted Khanna’s post Wednesday evening and said Feinstein’s continued absence is a “dereliction of duty.”
Spokespeople for Feinstein and for Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Khanna’s demand.
While Feinstein previously said she will not resign, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said in 2021 he would appoint a Black woman to fill the role if Feinstein were to step down before the end of her term.
A number of Democrats have already lined up in the race to succeed Feinstein, among them Rep. Barbara Lee — who has Khanna’s backing in the race. Khanna himself was at one point named in lists of potential candidates, but he said in March that he would not seek the Senate seat in California.
Other Democrats who have announced candidacies for the seat include Reps. Katie Porter and Adam B. Schiff.
Feinstein has long fought back against allegations — some coming from her own colleagues — that she is no longer fit to serve. She has faced questions about and media coverage of the perceived decline in her mental acuity.
“The real question is whether I’m still an effective representative for 40 million Californians, and the record shows that I am,” she said in a statement to The Post in response to an April 2022 article from the San Francisco Chronicle that reported four Senate colleagues — three of them Democrats — and three of the lawmaker’s former staffers and a California Democrat in the House said her memory is rapidly deteriorating.
Liz Goodwin contributed to this report.
