Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told colleagues on Tuesday that he wouldn’t help Democrats temporarily replace Sen. Dianne Feinstein while the 89-year-old battles shingles.
He addressed the request calling it “extremely unusual” even as he praised Feinstein as a “giant figure”.
But McConnell, who returned from an absence after suffering a concussion, indicated that he had no role in easing the Democrats’ predicament, even as he wished his colleague a “speedy recovery.”
Democrats have complained that with Feinstein gone, moving President Biden’s nominees through the judiciary has become cumbersome. With the House of Representatives in GOP hands, moving nominations is a primary means by which Biden can influence the nation’s agenda for years to come.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said “Senator Republicans will not participate in the removal” of Sen. Dianne Feinstein from the Judiciary Committee on an interim basis.” The 89-year-old Californian is battling shingles
But McConnell said on the Senate floor that her absence “didn’t really stop the work of the Judiciary Committee.” He said the committee had reported more than 50 candidates.
“So the department has no hurdle to teleport qualified candidates for the job,” he said. “However, some of the same far-left voices that attacked Senator Feinstein in the past are now suggesting that the Senate remove her from the Judiciary Committee indefinitely — indefinitely,” he said.
He said Senate Republicans “would not participate in sidelining” a committee member on a temporary basis “just so the Democrats can implement their worst candidates,” and pointed to four candidates being deferred.
His comments came after Senate Republicans warned that they would prevent Democrats from removing Feinstein from her role on the Judiciary Committee, amid demands for her to resign because of her advanced age.
Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) missed a series of votes while fighting shingles. Republicans may not allow Democrats to remove her from the powerful Judiciary Committee in order to keep President Biden’s judicial nominees filibuster
After calls for the longtime California Democrat to step down because she continues to miss votes in her shingles case, party leaders have made arrangements to remove her from committee so that majority Democrats can continue to confirm federal judges through a narrowly divided Senate.
But any change requires Republicans to move forward, and Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton made his own views clear over the weekend.
“Republicans should not help Democrats confirm Joe Biden’s most extreme candidates in the courts,” he wrote in a tweet and article in the conservative publication The Federalist, saying there was no reason for them to help.
Cotton’s tough stance came as senators returned to Washington after a break, after a prominent Democrat again called on Feinstein to step down.
Feinstein faced fresh calls for her to resign her seat last month, after she was hospitalized with shingles and missed a series of committee votes. Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, who missed voting for weeks while seeking inpatient treatment for depression, is scheduled to return to the Senate floor Monday.
Absences hampered the majority’s ability to move nominations.
Feinstein refuses to step down, but said a few days ago that she had asked Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to appoint a temporary replacement for her in the judiciary.
She has already said she will not seek re-election in 2024 after a series of reports about her difficulties with details of legislation or personnel in Congress.
Republicans have the power to try to block the move: Any senator can veto Schumer’s request for “unanimous approval” to make the move. Party leaders can then try to push the change through a vote, but the rules require them to get 60 votes to make the change.
Democrats faced challenges in the Senate 51-49, with Feinstein absent and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, who returned to the US Capitol on Monday after six weeks of treatment for clinical depression.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., center, walks into the Senate chamber, Monday, April 17, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington, nearly six weeks after a fall at a Washington-area hotel and treatment for an extended concussion. He has not yet revealed whether he will seek to prevent Democrats from diverting Feinstein from the judiciary, as her absence has held up President Biden’s nominations.
Sen. Tom Cotton has indicated that he will not approve of Democrats’ efforts to remove ailing senators from the Judiciary Committee on an interim basis
McConnell, who has been out of office for weeks after falling at a fundraiser at Trump’s former hotel, has been identified as a key figure in the matter, returning to the Senate floor Monday after suffering a concussion.
McConnell, 81, considers himself a institutionalist who said he held Trump responsible for Jan. 6. But one of his major accomplishments is helping to reshape the judiciary through bitter flights – including killing Merrick Garland’s Supreme Court nomination during the Obama administration. .
But it’s an issue that could one day come back to McConnell, 81, who hopes to regain the majority next year with his class of seniors. Senior Republican Charles Grassley, 89, underwent hip surgery just 10 days into his new six-year term.
If Republicans reject the move, the case will uphold Democrats’ court. Progressive California Rep. Ro Khanna on Sunday continued calls for Feinstein to step down.
Governor Gavin Newsom called for an “interim” senator to fill the seat.
“He doesn’t have to appoint someone in the current race” to succeed her, Khanna told Fox News Sunday. I will support the governor in doing so. This has nothing to do with the current race, because the caretaker will solve that.
