Feinstein Faces Pressure To Resign Amid Report She Had Encephalitis

SAN FRANCISCO — Sen. Dianne Feinstein suffered health complications during her long illness from shingles that were previously undisclosed, The New York Times reported Thursday. Reports that she's suffered encephalitis, prompted renewed concerns about her ability to fulfill her duties and calls for her to step down.

The California Democrat appeared frail and disoriented, with one side of her face frozen, when she returned to Washington last week after a nearly three-month absence, according to the Times. The newspaper reported her illness caused encephalitis and Ramsay Hunt syndrome, citing two people who knew of the senator’s diagnosis and spoke to the Times anonymously.

Encephalitis is an inflammation of the brain tissue that causes swelling and can lead to headache, stiff neck, light sensitivity, mental confusion and seizures, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Ramsay Hunt syndrome happens when shingles affects the facial nerve near the ear, according to the Mayo Clinic, which said the condition can cause facial paralysis and hearing loss.

“I’m back in Washington, voting and attending committee meetings while I recover from complications related to a shingles diagnosis,” Feinstein said in a prepared statement to the Times. “I continue to work and get results for California.”

The news of Feinstein’s additional health issues comes two days after the Los Angeles Times reported a brief interview with the senator in which she appeared not to realize she had been gone from Congress for months.

“I haven’t been gone,” she told the newspaper. “… No, I’ve been here. I’ve been voting. Please, either know or don’t know.”

California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna has since renewed demands previously made during Feinstein’s absence that she step down, telling SFGATE this week, “I stand by my call for her to resign.”

Susie Tompkins Buell, a major Democratic donor added her voice to the calls for resignation, telling the Times, “I admire the senator deeply, and I am sorry she is so not well... The Senate has critical, challenging work to do, and as the stakes are so high and she is not able to be present, to be informed and active, let alone have the rest she needs in order to recover, I feel she needs to step down. And yet she isn’t willing in this state of mind.”

Still, many on Capitol Hill expressed joy she is back to ease the gridlock in the Senate, where the Democratic agenda is at the mercy of the party's razor-thin majority.

“Democrats don’t get in the way of conversations between patients and their doctors,” Rep. Ted Lieu told Politico. “Sen. Feinstein came back last week and she voted, and that was very good.”

The 89-year-old Feinstein disclosed in March she had been diagnosed with shingles over the Senate’s February recess and had been hospitalized but expected to make a full recovery and return to work. This development occurred after she announced in mid-February she would not seek re-election in 2024 but intended to finish her current term.

Feinstein’s absence, which came as her health and memory have noticeably declined in recent years, meant that some of President Joe Biden's picks for the federal bench stalled in the Judiciary Committee earlier this year.

If Feinstein decides to step down during her term, it would be up to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom to fill the vacancy, potentially reordering the highly competitive race to succeed her. Newsom said in 2021 that he would nominate a Black woman to fill the seat if Feinstein were to step aside.