Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, who has been away from the Senate for over a month after falling and hitting his head at a Washington hotel, returns Monday facing a contentious question: How to handle the Democratic request to remove 89-year-old Dianne Feinstein from the Senate Judiciary Committee.
GOP sources said Sunday it was unlikely the leader would agree to this but that the issue still needed to be discussed, and a final decision had yet to be made on how to proceed.
McConnell’s decision could have major implications on President Joe Biden’s efforts to fill the judiciary and shake up the California Senate race.
That’s because if McConnell decides to deny Democrats the 60 votes needed to remove Feinstein from committee, as she has requested after being out for the past two months due to shingles, it will only intensify pressure on Feinstein to resign from the Senate. If she does, it could very well rattle the California Senate race given that Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has previously vowed to name a Black woman to the position — and it’s unclear if that appointed senator may also compete for Feinstein’s seat in 2024.
But if McConnell agrees to the Democratic demands, that could cause blowback from the right, something Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton foreshadowed on Sunday.
“Republicans should not assist Democrats in confirming Joe Biden’s most radical nominees to the courts,” Cotton, one of the only Republicans to publicly weigh in so far, tweeted over the weekend.
After decades of service, Feinstein still has not returned to the Senate after announcing in early March she had shingles. Questions have since mounted about her health, when and if she will return to the US Senate, and how the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has a narrow, one-vote margin, would continue to implement the Biden administration’s judicial legacy…
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