CNN anchor Jake Tapper invoked the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in questioning the top Senate Judiciary Committee Democrat about the extended absence of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and its impact on the panel’s ability to approve judicial nominees.
During an exchange on Sunday, Tapper pressed Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) to consider the political repercussions of not pushing Feinstein to retire, as many Democrats were hesitant to do with Ginsburg in the lead-up to her death in 2020 despite concerns about her age and health.
“All due respect, sir, you and your fellow Democrats were very ginger and very polite when it came to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and not pushing her to retire when you had a Democratic majority in the Senate. How’d that work out for you? How’d that work out for Roe v. Wade?” Tapper asked on “State of the Union.”
Dang. Jake Tapper to Durbin: "All due respect, sir, you and your fellow Democrats were very ginger and very polite when it came to RBG and not pushing her to retire when you had a Democrat majority in the Senate. How'd that work out for you? How'd that work out for Roe v Wade?" pic.twitter.com/fC4RdQMHbu
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 7, 2023
After 87-year-old Ginsburg died in 2020 due to complications from pancreatic cancer, former President Donald Trump picked Amy Coney Barrett to replace her on the high court, solidifying a conservative majority that would go on to do away with Roe last year.
After Feinstein, 89, revealed in February she would not seek re-election in 2024 amid concerns about her mental health, the senator announced in early March that she had been diagnosed with shingles. Feinstein’s months-long absence while recovering has been holding up the ability of the judiciary panel, which is split 10-10 along party lines without her, to advance some of President Joe Biden’s nominees to federal courts around the nation.
In his response to Tapper, Durbin shrugged off the comparison to Ginsburg as a guessing game and said he wants to treat Feinstein “fairly” and be “sensitive” to her situation, considering other senators have had medical issues that temporarily kept them from Capitol Hill. Still, Durbin conceded as a “bottom line” that the business of the Judiciary Committee “is affected” by Feinstein’s absence.
Just when Feinstein will return remains unclear, and while a small but growing number of Democrats call for her to resign, Republicans declined to do Democrats a favor by blocking a bid to replace Feinstein on the Judiciary Committee.
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In a statement on Thursday, Feinstein did not say when she plans to return to Capitol Hill but argued that there “has been no slowdown” with judicial nominees. Still, Feinstein said she was “disappointed” that Republicans on the committee have been blocking a few nominees from moving forward. Feinstein said she expects them to advance “quickly” upon her return.