Let’s get one thing straight from the get-go: this isn’t a partisan thing.
The fact that the two senators are Democrats has nothing to do with the call for voters to bounce them from office. For the record, I think voters in New York’s 3rd congressional district should recall Republican Rep. George Santos, too.
But really, Sens. Dianne Feinstein and John Fetterman are not mentally fit to serve in the Senate. How much more proof do we need?!
Feinstein, 89, was out for months after being hospitalized for shingles. She has missed more than 70% of the votes in the 118th Senate. When she finally returned, she was in a wheelchair.
But what happened Tuesday clearly shows that Feinstein can no longer execute her duties of office.
Feinstein, who has been in politics for 53 years, was asked by reporters about her lengthy absence and how her colleagues reacted upon her return.
“No, I haven’t been gone,” she said, Slate reported. “You should follow the — I haven’t been gone, I’ve been working.”
One reporter asked whether she had been working from home.
“No, I’ve been here. I’ve been voting,” she said. “Please, you either know or don’t know.”
Oh, we know, DiFi. You have not “been here.” In fact, you haven’t “been here” mentally for quite some time.
And let’s slow down a second. The California Democrat has been elected over and over, so she must be pleasing her constituents. And she’s devoted her life to public service, so, bravo.
But over the last couple of years, there have been more and more stories about how Feinstein is often confused. One member of Congress who met with Feinstein last year said the once feisty senator had clearly lost a step — or seven.
“I have worked with her for a long time and long enough to know what she was like just a few years ago: always in command, always in charge, on top of the details, basically couldn’t resist a conversation where she was driving some bill or some idea. All of that is gone,” the lawmaker told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Fetterman is even worse. He suffered a stroke during his Senate campaign but voters elected him anyway. He has serious cognitive and hearing issues. And just weeks into his term, he disappeared for five weeks to deal with depression.
But what he did Tuesday clearly shows he is incapable of handling a U.S. senator’s heady duties.
During a Q&A session at the Senate Banking Committee hearing, Fetterman was the last senator to question officials about the Silicon Valley Bank collapse earlier this year.
“So, I went up on the Internet, and it’s like, it did happen. It did happen. It did happen,” Fetterman said, holding up a clipping of a New York Post headline titled “Ex-Silicon Valley Bank CEO Greg Becker jets to Hawaii after collapse.”
“And it’s in Fortune, the second-biggest bank in U.S. history collapsed and chose to go to Hawaii on that,” he continued. “You know, I’ve never been to Hawaii and neither has my family. I guess I’ve never cranked, excuse me, crashed a bank.”
Fetterman asked the officials if it was “a running joke” in the banking community that the federal government would bail them out. Former Silicon Valley Bank CEO Gregory Becker said he does not “believe that’s the case.”
“Really? Because every bank you seemingly that crashed, it’s like, ‘We can bail him out. This one crashed, we’ll bail them out,’” Fetterman said. “So far, everything’s been true. So, doesn’t it feel that now if a bank really believed that they wouldn’t be bailed out, now after bailing them out, these couple of bailouts, they are going to.”
“Do you believe that that is not outrageous that, no matter how deplorable your performance is, you are made as whole and all by … taxpapers [sic],” the Pennsylvania senator said. “So what do yous [sic] believe?”
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Then there was this word salad.
“It’s astonishing. That’s like if you have, I mean like, and they also realize is that now they have … a guaranteed way to be saved by, again, by no matter, by how?” Fetterman said. “Isn’t it appropriate that this kind of control should be more stricter to prevent this kind of thing from going, or should we go on start bailing and sailing whoever bank regardless of how … their conduct is?”
Look, it’s sad what happened to Fetterman, who is just 53. And we all hope for a full recovery. But he’s simply not able to perform his duties. Nor is Feinstein.
It’s time for California and Pennsylvania voters to recall them for the good of the nation.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.