Sen. Dianne Feinstein Claims ‘No Slowdown’ of Judicial Nominees in Her Absence

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), giving no indication when she will return to the Senate amidst calls for her to resign from office, defended her absence and claimed there has been “no slowdown” of judicial nominees while she’s slowly recovering.

“The Senate continues to swiftly confirm highly qualified individuals to the federal judiciary, including seven more judicial nominees who were confirmed this week. There has been no slowdown,” Feinstein said in a statement on Thursday.

Feinstein, who is 89-years-old and plans to retire at the end of her current term, has been absent from work since early this year as she was hospitalized with shingles.

In her absence, she has missed over 91 votes, and the Senate Judiciary Committee has remained deadlocked 10-10 on many issues, splitting the committee in half between Democrats and Republicans.

However, in her statement, the Golden State Democrat touted the Judiciary Committee’s confirmations and provided a list of nominees that are in the Senate during her absence while she recovers from shingles.

She also claimed that the nominees not being confirmed are because of the Republicans on the committee, not her.

“I’m confident that when I return to the Senate, we will be able to move the remaining qualified nominees out of committee quickly and to the Senate floor for a vote,” she added.

During her absence, she has received calls to resign from many on the left wanting to end the gridlock, including Democrat Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA), Dean Phillips (D-MN) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).

Additionally, over 60 left-leaning groups from California called for her to resign from her U.S. Senate seat after missing dozens of Senate votes.

Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.