Hey everyone, alright let's do this. It is left right in center. I'm David Green, the co-founder of Fearless Media and your host here on the show.

So this week I want to talk about who gets to decide when someone elected to office is not healthy enough to do their job anymore.

There are avenues of course for voters to remove elected officials, but you know it takes time. And often situations are more complicated.

This week we saw two senators return to their job, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, if Kentucky came back after six weeks.

He was recovering from a fall and a concussion and his return has been embraced, even Democrats, seemed to hold up proposing anything controversial in his absence out of respect.

We also saw Senator John Federman of Pennsylvania after being off for six weeks. He was undergoing treatment for depression. He is now back to work.

And then there's veteran California Senator Diane Feinstein, who has been off for close to two months after contracting shingles.

She is still not well enough to return to work physically due to complications from her illness so she's been working from home.

Many Democrats are concerned about her absence because she sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has not really been able to do its job of approving President Biden's judicial nominees.

There was an interim solution the Democrats proposed. They were going to replace Feinstein on the committee.

Since without her the breakdown is 10 Democrats, 10 Republicans, and not surprisingly Republicans have been blocking Democrats from doing that replacement.

They say that they want to hold up what they claim are radical, controversial and unqualified liberal nominees.

Now there are reports of some Democrats in the House and the Senate pushing quietly for Feinstein to step down altogether from her seat, which has led some powerful women in Congress, from both parties, to stand up for Feinstein, saying that if she were a man, no one would be trying to push her out.

Feinstein is 89 years old. She is the oldest member of Congress and she has already said that she does not plan to run again next year.

What should happen here and what should we be considering? Is this sexism? Is it ageism?

We have our crew back, Moelay Thie is Executive Director at Georgetown University's Institute of Politics and Public Service.

He was Communications Director for the Democratic National Committee and also advised Hillary Clinton and Sarah Isger is here.

She is Senior Editor at the Dispatch. She is a lawyer who is spokesperson at the Department of Justice under President Trump. Hello Sarah, hello Mo.

Hello.

Hi. So Mo should Feinstein step down?

It's a tough question for me.

I tend to think that the decision over who should represent people in Congress and the United States Senate should be left between the candidates and the voters, unless there is a major reason why others should intervene.

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