Senate Dems Fail to Replace Feinstein on Judiciary

Senate Democrats have failed in an attempt to appoint a temporary replacement on the Judiciary Committee to take Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s place after Republicans objected to the request that would have let Democrats push through President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees. 

Last week, Feinstein, D-Calif., asked Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to replace her on the committee until she can return to Washington, reports CBS News.

But when Democrats tried to appoint someone to vote in her place on Tuesday, Republicans blocked the request, so she was not replaced.  

The 89-year-old senior senator, who is the oldest sitting senator and member of Congress, has missed dozens of votes after she being diagnosed with shingles earlier this year and spending a short time in the hospital. 

Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin said the committee will keep doing its work, but that it will be a challenge for the committee to advance the nominees. He also said Democrats are trying to allow Feinstein the opportunity to return as “quickly as possible.”

Feinstein has promised to return to the Senate once her medical team allows her, but her absence is leaving the Judiciary Committee’s vote split along party lines. 

But when Schumer on Tuesday said he wanted Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., to temporarily replace Feinstein on the committee and requested unanimous consent from the Senate to make that happen, he was met with an objection from Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who said the vote was really “about a handful of judges that you can’t get the votes for.”

Other Senate Republicans, over the past few days, said they were adamant that they block the attempt to replace Feinstein on the committee. 

“Senate Republicans will not take part in sidelining a temporarily absent colleague off a committee just so Democrats can force through their very worst nominees,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who returned to the Senate this week after being absent for five weeks due to a concussion. 

He also praised the California Democrat as a “stateswoman” and a “titanic figure” in the Senate. 

Graham, before the vote, said he didn’t think his fellow Republicans had the “appetite” to appoint a temporary replacement, as he didn’t think that would be a “good precedent for the Senate.”

Some House Democrats are calling on Feinstein to resign, including Rep. Ro Khanna of California, who posted on Twitter that she “can no longer fulfill her duties.”

However, Rep. Pete Aguilar, also of California, said Feinstein should decide on her resignation only under her own timeline, but still, “every senator will need to participate” to advance the judicial nominees.