Feinstein gets pacemaker, misses 2nd day of Sessions hearings
WASHINGTON — Sen. Dianne Feinstein had a “voluntary” and “nonemergency” medical procedure to install a pacemaker Tuesday night, her office said Wednesday.
The California Democrat was working at home Wednesday, aides said, and missed the second day of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearings on the nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., to be U.S. attorney general.
The decision to install the pacemaker, her office said, “was made after consulting with her doctor and was undertaken out of an abundance of caution.”
Feinstein opened the Democratic opposition to Sessions on Tuesday with a methodical but scathing indictment of his record of opposition to hate-crimes measures, same-sex marriage and legislation banning torture of terrorism suspects.
Sessions is expected to win confirmation with unanimous GOP support, but his hearings provide a test run for Democratic opposition to President-elect Donald Trump’s first Supreme Court nomination, which could come quickly after Trump’s inauguration Jan. 20.