Senator Dianne Feinstein’s health crisis has made her unable to perform her job, and a new report says that her staffers have been using clever tricks to hide her problems FOR YEARS. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more.

Transcript:

*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Mike Papantonio: Senator Feinstein’s health crisis has made her really unable to perform her job. A new report says that her staffers have been way, way aware of this for a long time and they’re having to use tricks to hide how serious the problem is. And they’ve been doing that for years. Wow. This, the list is almost, it goes on for, reports of she doesn’t know where she is. She doesn’t know what, she doesn’t even know she’s at work. Give me the story about, yeah, the last story came out today, I think.

Farron Cousins: Yeah. This is so horrible because she was talking to a reporter and the reporter mentioned all the time that she has missed and Feinstein snaps back. She says, what are you talking about? I haven’t missed any time. I’ve been here, I’ve been voting. And no, she hadn’t. At that point when she talked to the reporter, she had not voted on a piece of legislation since early February or late January. She didn’t know that she was gone from Congress for three months. At that point, I mean, at that moment the Democrats should have come out and said, Dianne, you’re done. It’s time to go home now.

Mike Papantonio: Okay. So viewers, what should we do? She’s a Democrat. Oh my God, she’s a Democrat. Should we stand up here and say she’s a Democrat so this is all right? Really? Is that what we’re supposed, is that what you want from us? Or should we analyze the problem?

Farron Cousins: When we first, well not just us, but everybody started talking about Feinstein back in February when she had to leave, when she had shingles, Nancy Pelosi came out and said that all these attacks on Feinstein are sexist. It’s sexism.

Mike Papantonio: Yeah. Yeah.

Farron Cousins: It’s misogyny at play.

Mike Papantonio: Right. Right.

Farron Cousins: And now we’re finding out that not only has her staff, Feinstein’s staff for years, been making it to where she’s never seen by herself. They always, you know, almost a Weekend at Bernie’s type thing happening with her, but now we’re learning that it’s Nancy Pelosi that’s keeping Feinstein in office so that Gavin Newsom doesn’t appoint Barbara Lee to that Senate seat because Pelosi wants Adam Schiff to have it.

Mike Papantonio: What about Katie Porter? I mean, she’s got a great choice. She could appoint some real living, people who are living, they’re not dead. This woman for all practical purposes, is dead. I mean, for her ability to be able to represent, what is it, 40 million people in California?

Farron Cousins: Yeah.

Mike Papantonio: They have no representation and they haven’t for a long time. The judiciary can’t move because she can’t vote on it. And you can’t simply say, well let’s replace her with somebody else. It doesn’t work like that. She is on the judiciary committee. She has to vote. There’s no way to solve the problem. And, you know, the truth is, Schiff would be a terrible, terrible candidate, especially up because he’s purely a Wall Street apologist. You know, the only thing that people remember about Schiff is he, you know, beat Trump down on the Russia gate. Now Schiff is looking like an idiot. So you’ve got Barbara Lee, you’ve got Katie Porter. Great, great potential. Just have her get outta the way and appoint ’em. Right?

Farron Cousins: Exactly. And the longer she stays in there, the worse things are for the Democrats. The worse this makes all elderly members of Congress look, to be honest with you. But I think.

Mike Papantonio: How old is she now?

Farron Cousins: She’s 89.

Mike Papantonio: 89, right.

Farron Cousins: She’s 89. And what we’re seeing right now, in my opinion, is nothing short of elderly abuse.

Mike Papantonio: Yeah. Good point.

Farron Cousins: That’s what’s happening because she doesn’t realize it either. The staff is abusing her. Nancy Pelosi, if these reports are true, is abusing her and this is sick and it needs to be stopped.

Mike Papantonio: AOC and Ro Khanna say, what the hell? Step down Feinstein and hush Pelosi. We’ve got a government we have to run. We have to make appointments. We have a window where we can make good solid appointments. She can’t even vote. She doesn’t even know who she’s voting for. Half the time she doesn’t even know, as you point out, that she’s actually voted.

Farron Cousins: Yeah.

Mike Papantonio: That is scary, scary, scary stuff. But I think it’s a trend in Washington. You have these old folks that don’t wanna give up any power. Most of the committees, the real important committees, those folks are between 70 and 80 years old. But you got people with talent, young people with talent sitting out there saying, what about me? Let me get involved. Let me help run government. Which is the logical thing to do.

Farron Cousins: It is.

Mike Papantonio: But I gotta tell you something. These old codgers won’t give up their position and she’s a great example of it. It’s really a pathetic story when you start understanding she is being abused. She needs to go home and relax.