Democrats have another major 2024 Senate race on their hands.
It complicates a difficult map.
And this top Democrat’s retirement announcement took everyone by surprise.
As Black Eye Politics reports:
Democrats don’t care if elected officials in top leadership positions are actually mentally capable.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) has “serious mental health” issues and often cannot understand the words that others are saying to him due to a serious stroke.
Fetterman said that when he’s under stress understanding people is like “trying to make out the muffled voice of the teacher in the ‘Peanuts’ cartoon, whose words could never be deciphered,” a New York Times report said.
Democrats have been pushing for Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) to retire, not because of her age but because wild progressives view her as being too moderate.
The effort to get Feinstein, who is 89 years old, to retire started after her performance during Senate Judiciary Committee hearings for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett in 2020.
“This is painful,” former Hillary Clinton communications guru Brian Fallon tweeted at the time. “Enough with this nonsense line of questioning premised on the idea that we don’t already know ACB’s views. Feinstein is giving Barrett way more benefit of the doubt than she deserves.”
Ever since the hearings Democrats have wanted to replace Feinstein and on Tuesday they got their wish when her staffers posted on social media that she would be retiring.
“I am announcing today I will not run for reelection in 2024 but intend to accomplish as much for California as I can through the end of next year when my term ends,” Feinstein wrote on Twitter. “Even with a divided Congress, we can still pass bills that will improve lives.”
“Each of us was sent here to solve problems. That’s what I’ve done for the last 30 years, and that’s what I plan to do for the next two years,” she added. “My thanks to the people of California for allowing me to serve them.”
But Feinstein herself appeared completely unaware of the announcement when questioned by reporters about her retirement.
“I haven’t made that decision,” she told reporters. “I haven’t released anything.”
One of her staffers told her that they “put out the statement.”
“You put out the statement?” she reportedly responded. “I didn’t know they put it out.”
“It is what it is,” she told reporters. “I think the time has come.”
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) have already announced that they will be campaigning for the Senate and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) is widely expected to join the race.