Senator Diane Feinstein To Resign In 2024

Hillary Clinton argued that Sen. Dianne Feinstein — the 89-year-old California Democrat who has refused to resign despite worries about her health and ability to legislate — should remain in the Senate if Democrats want to continue confirming President Biden’s judicial nominees.

Speaking Monday at the Chicago Humanities Festival, the former presidential nominee and U.S. senator called Feinstein “a remarkable and very effective leader.” But Clinton, who described Feinstein as her friend, also made a practical argument for Feinstein staying in office. ...

Feinstein is a member of the powerful Judiciary Committee, and when she was sidelined for three months as she recovered from shingles earlier this year, the committee was evenly split between Republicans and Democrats. As a result, committee Democrats were unable to confirm most of President Biden’s judicial nominees. Her absence also undercut the committee’s ability to issue subpoenas investigating the numerous reports of Supreme Court corruption. ...

Feinstein, who turns 90 on Thursday, has faced calls to resign from within the Capitol and outside it after a long absence due to a case of shingles. ...

Many of her fellow women senators have offered the most spirited defense of Feinstein, taking the calls for her to resign as an almost personal offense and furious with what they see as sexism and a double standard in a political system still dominated by men.

“I have served with many male senators who have had difficulty, and I didn’t hear anyone pushing them to not run again, to resign, in the way that Dianne has been treated,” said Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine who has served since 1997. “It shows that there is a different standard — still — that is applied to women senators in some cases by some people.” ...

The 1992 class of women senators also overlapped with a number of their male colleagues who infamously served past their prime and ability to function, said former senator Barbara Boxer, who was elected from California the same year as Feinstein. Boxer recalled “fabulous” male senators who were “wheeled … literally sometimes lying flat” for votes. ...