WASHINGTON ― Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) suggested on Thursday that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) may need to step down if she is unable to return to Washington in the coming months, stopping shy of outright calling for her colleague’s resignation.
“You can’t leave the seat vacant for that long,” Klobuchar said when asked about her Senate Judiciary Committee colleague during an interview with CNN.
“I’m hopeful that she can [return]. Again, I want to see what happens in the next month or so. You give her that time to be able to come back,” the Minnesota Democrat added. “But if she can’t come back month after month after month, with this close Senate [margin], that’s not just going to hurt California. It’s going to be an issue for the country.”
Feinstein, 89, has been absent from the upper chamber for nearly two months while she recovers from a bout of shingles. It’s not clear when she plans to return. A Wednesday statement from the senator cited “continued complications” from her diagnosis and asked for her to be temporarily replaced on the Judiciary Committee until she has recovered.
Some House Democrats have called for the California senator to step aside so the party can confirm President Joe Biden’s top nominees. Her absence has stalled the committee’s vote on an appellate court nominee, and some Democrats have expressed concern that Feinstein may never return to the Capitol.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) called on the veteran lawmaker to resign on Wednesday, commending her “lifetime of public service” but adding that “it is obvious she can no longer fulfill her duties.” Feinstein previously said she will leave Congress at the end of her current term in 2024.
Klobuchar suggested on Thursday that a prolonged absence for Feinstein could have bigger ramifications for Democrats than just the ability to confirm Biden’s judicial nominees.
“If it goes on and on and on and on, then we’re down one vote in the Senate and what is still only a one-vote margin, that becomes a whole different issue. I think she’s going to have to make a serious decision at that point,” she said on CNN.
Replacing Feinstein on the Judiciary Committee may not be a simple task, either. Typically, committee assignments are worked out by the respective party leaders at the start of each Congress and approved quickly via unanimous consent. In this case, however, any one Republican could object to such a move on the grounds that they don’t want to make it any easier for Democrats to confirm Biden’s nominees. That likely means it would require bipartisan support.
“You need 60 votes, so we’re going to need 10 Republicans to go along with this, if history is any guide,” Klobuchar said. “I hope they will.”