California Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., differentiated between the prolonged absences from the Senate of Sens. John Fetterman, D-Penn., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., amid growing calls for Feinstein to resign, saying Feinstein has yet to solidify a return date while Fetterman has.
‘[Sen. Feinstein] hasn’t been showing up and she has no intention. We don’t know if she’s even going to show up. She has no return date,’ Khanna told ‘Fox News Sunday’ host Shannon Bream. ‘In contrast, Senator Fetterman has said that he’s going to show back up on April 17. So, it’s one thing to take medical leave and come back. It’s another thing where you’re just not doing the job.’
Khanna made headlines last week for taking to Twitter to call for Feinstein’s resignation, writing, ‘We need to put the country ahead of personal loyalty,’ and saying she can ‘no longer fulfill her duties.’
Feinstein, 89, was hospitalized last month for shingles and has faced other health issues, including concerning reports related to her mental fitness. A recent statement from her office said she will continue to work from her home in San Francisco while also asking Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., ‘to ask the Senate to allow another Democratic senator to temporarily serve until I’m able to resume my committee work.’
Likewise, Fetterman checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for clinical depression a little over a month after starting his six-year Senate term. He was later released from the hospital on March 31 after a six-week hospital stay and is expected to pick up his Senate responsibilities this coming week.
‘The reality here is there’s the sense, ‘Well you need to have a deference to these senators who have served so long.’ How about a deference to the American people? How about an expectation that if you sign up to do one of these jobs, you show up?’ Khanna said Sunday.
Fox News Digital reached out to Fetterman’s office for comment but did not hear back in time for publication.
Most recently, Khanna again took to Twitter to respond to whether sexism was truly behind the calls for Feinstein’s resignation, saying it was instead ‘common sense.’
‘Or is it common sense? There is no job I know of where you can just continue to not show up and people think that’s perfectly fine. We live in a democracy. The people are the boss,’ Khanna wrote on Thursday.
Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., recently suggested sexism was at play amid Feinstein’s resignations calls.
‘It’s interesting to me. I don’t know what political agendas are at work that are going after Sen. Feinstein in that way. I’ve never seen them go after a man who was sick in the Senate in that way,’ Pelosi told reporters Wednesday.
A spokesperson for Pelosi told Fox News Digital that ‘Speaker Pelosi’s comment was not referencing any specific case, but commenting on the historic attitude.’
A number of individuals have already announced they will be running to replace Feinstein come her retirement in 2025, among them Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., whom Khanna has already endorsed. When asked if his calls for Feinstein’s resignation were politically motivated, Khanna said they have nothing to do with the current race.
‘This has nothing to do with the current race because a caretaker would solve that. This has to do with someone who is just not showing up,’ Khanna said. ‘And I said out loud what people have been saying in private, and this is how the Beltway works.’