For many people calling for 89-year-old Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) to retire, the concern is about her physical and mental health. The s...
For many people calling for 89-year-old Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) to retire, the concern is about her physical and mental health. The senator was out for months with a case of shingles, and when she returned to the Senate, she had to be moved around in a wheelchair.
But Hillary Clinton is not concerned about the senator’s health. The former first lady says Feinstein’s resignation would not be “worth the tradeoff” because it would adversely affect President Joe Biden’s judicial appointments.
“Let me say a word about my friend and longtime colleague Dianne Feinstein,” Clinton said in an interview Monday at the Chicago Humanities Festival, Time reported. “First of all, she has suffered greatly from the bout of shingles and encephalitis that she endured. Here is the dilemma for her: she got reelected, the people of California voted for her again, not very long ago. That was the voters’ decision to vote for her, and she has been a remarkable and very effective leader.”
Feinstein serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and when calls emerged that she be removed so the panel could advance Biden’s judicial nominees, Republicans rejected the move.
“Here’s the dilemma: the Republicans will not agree to add someone else to the Judiciary Committee if she retires,” she said. “I want you to think about how crummy that is. I don’t know in her heart about whether she really would or wouldn’t, but right now, she can’t. Because if we’re going to get judges confirmed, which is one of the most important continuing obligations that we have, then we cannot afford to have her seat vacant.”
Clinton, as usual, blamed Republicans.
“If Republicans were to say and do the decent thing and say, well this woman was gravely ill, she had just lost her husband to cancer … of course we will let you fill this position if she retires. But they won’t say that,” she said. “So what are we supposed to do? All these people pushing her to retire: fine, we get no more judges? I don’t think that’s a good tradeoff.”
Clinton also said there should be no age limit to serve in Congress nor a term limit.
“If you don’t want to vote for somebody, don’t vote for them. But don’t impose some artificial check on the voters. I don’t buy this whole debate. And frankly, a lot of the people pushing it, I don’t understand what their real agenda is, because part of it is a bank shot against Joe Biden. And I think Joe Biden has done a very good job,” she said.
Despite Clinton’s partisan stance, one Democrat is taking a bold position to call for the elderly senator to step aside.
“I have a lot of respect for Senator Feinstein and I am wishing her the best in her return and recovery,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) wrote in an email to SFGATE. “That being said, I stand by my call for her to resign.”
After Feinstein returned last week, Khanna told POLITICO, “I stand by what I said at the time, because three months is a long time to be absent without any clarity,” though added, “But given where we are, I’m hopeful. I’m giving the situation the benefit of the doubt and hopeful that she’ll be able to fulfill her duty, that’s what I care about.”
Khanna’s call comes after Feinstein, who has been in politics for 53 years, was asked by reporters about her lengthy absence and how her colleagues reacted upon her return.
“No, I haven’t been gone,” she said, Slate reported. “You should follow the — I haven’t been gone, I’ve been working.”
One reporter asked whether she had been working from home.
“No, I’ve been here. I’ve been voting,” she said. “Please, you either know or don’t know.”
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