- Feinstein, 89, made the declaration in a statement Wednesday, hours after Rep. Ro Khanna and Rep. Dean Phillips took to social media to demand she step down
- The consecutive calls for the elderly stateswoman’s resignation – both from fellow Democrats – underscored rising concern over her prolonged leave,
- Stricken with shingles, Feinstein said she has conferred with Senate Leader Chuck Schumer ‘to allow another Democratic senator to temporarily serve’
Embattled San Francisco Senator Dianne Feinstein has announced she plans to temporarily relinquish her duties to another Democrat after two of her fellow party members asked she resign.
Feinstein, 89, made the declaration in a statement Wednesday, roughly two hours after Rep. Ro Khanna, also of California, and Rep. Dean Phillips took to social media to demand she step down due to an ongoing, two-month medical absence.
The consecutive calls for the elderly stateswoman’s resignation – both from fellow Democrats – underscored rising concern over her prolonged leave, which has held up her party’s ability to confirm federal judges.
Supposedly stricken with shingles, Feinstein on Wednesday said she has asked Senate Leader Chuck Schumer ‘to allow another Democratic senator to temporarily serve’ on the judiciary panel ‘until I’m able to resume my committee work.’
The state senator, however, did not provide a timeline for the unapproved arrangement, only saying that she will head back to Capitol when her medical team says it is safe for her to travel.
The official correspondence then finishes abruptly, without any form of signoff or sense of gratitude for her colleagues putting up with her prolonged absence.
Hours earlier, in a somewhat unprecedented move indicative of the outlandish situation, two house democrats demanded Feinstein resign after 31 years of representing San Francisco in Washington.
Rep. Khanna, who represents nearby Bay Area city Santa Clara, was the first to publicly call for the longtime Senate fixture, who previously aired plans to retire at the end of her term in 2024.
‘It’s time for @SenFeinstein to resign,’ the 46-year-old Democrat wrote in a post to Twitter that has already been read nearly 2million times.
‘We need to put the country ahead of personal loyalty,’ Khanna continued. ‘While she has had a lifetime of public service, it is obvious she can no longer fulfill her duties.’
He added that ‘not speaking out undermines our [House members’] credibility as elected representatives.’
The post, published Wednesday at 5:19pm, already has more than 17,500 likes and thousands of retweets.
One of those retweets, coming just over a half hour later, belonged to Khanna and Feinstein’s Capitol Hill colleague Dean Phillips, of Minnesota.
He chimed in to say that he agrees with Khanna, but also commended Feinstein for her years of service – not only as a senator, but as San Francisco’s first female male in the late 70s.
‘Senator Feinstein is a remarkable American whose contributions to our country are immeasurable,’ Phillips tweeted. ‘But I believe it’s now a dereliction of duty to remain in the Senate and a dereliction of duty for those who agree to remain quiet.’
Feinstein, who was first elected to the senate in 1992, is the longest-serving female lawmaker in Senate history.
The senator has largely avoided public events since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and after her husband passed away in February 2022.
