Several Republicans in the Senate have rejected assumptions that they would take an unprecedented step in blocking any replacement for Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) on the Senate Judiciary Committee, should she resign before the end of her term.
Left-wing Democrats in Congress have urged Feinstein to step down after struggling with the aftermath of a shingles infection that kept her out of Washington, D.C., for months. But prominent Democrats have encouraged Feinstein to keep the seat, claiming Republicans could jump on the opportunity to slow down judicial nominees.
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Republicans on the committee have claimed they would not make the move to block the seat, even though they blocked a resolution that would temporarily give the seat to Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) in April. At the time, Republicans said giving her seat away while she was still a member of the Senate would be disrespectful to Feinstein.
“We couldn’t do that,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who led the committee from 2015 to 2019, told Business Insider about whether Republicans would try to block the seat should Feinstein resign. “Once they’re seated, we would accept it, as long as it isn’t done for political purposes.”
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), another member of the committee, also rejected the notion they would block a permanent replacement, arguing Democrats get the committee majority because they have the Senate majority.
“I don’t know why that would be a problem,” Hawley said. “Because they have a majority, they’re entitled to a one-seat vote majority on that committee, so it’s unclear to me how we could prevent them from having that.”
Even Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who led the opposition to Cardin’s temporary replacement, said he would be in favor of replacing the California senator on the committee if she chose to resign.
“If she does resign, I would be in the camp of following the precedent of the Senate, replacing the person, consistent with what we have done in the past,” Graham told CNN in April.
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Two other senators, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), refused to engage in the hypotheticals, especially considering Feinstein has continued to insist that she will not resign before 2025. Cruz said he takes Feinstein “at her word,” on not resigning.
The California Democrat returned to the Senate in May, which gave Democrats the power to advance the nominations of certain judicial nominees referred by President Joe Biden.
