Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) took to the airwaves yesterday in defense of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), arguing that it’s up to Feinstein to decide if and when she leaves office before the end of her term. Gillibrand says that many other senators have had serious illnesses that have kept them away from the Senate. “They all deserve a chance to get better and come back to work. Dianne will get better. She will come back to work.” This is not a strong or good argument.

…First, the Democrats have a 51 seat majority. Every day she’s absent makes confirming judges significantly harder. That is especially because she is not only one vote in the Senate. She’s also a critical vote on the Judiciary committee. Without her present, Democrats need at least one Republican vote to advance nominees to the floor. Given GOP control in the House confirming judges is the main thing the Senate is doing now. Every day she’s away is a big deal and she’s been away since February. Feinstein has asked that she be temporarily replaced on the Judiciary Committee. But Republicans have the power to block that move and almost certainly will do so.

…Second, this isn’t a matter of cutting short a Senate career over one illness. Feinstein has already announced she’s not running for reelection. So this would only be ending her Senate career about 18 months ahead of schedule. This is quite different from the time Sen. Lujan (D) of New Mexico, then age 49, was absent from the Senate after suffering a stroke in early 2022. He’s at the start of his Senate career and there’s every reason to think voters might return him to office for decades into the future. He’s thirty nine years younger than Feinstein. Similar facts apply to Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) and his recent absence for treatment of clinical depression. The facts are just totally different.

Third – really the elephant in the room – while we have no formal diagnoses there is quite a lot of evidence that Feinstein is no longer truly capable of carrying out her Senate functions. There appears to be almost universal agreement that she’s suffered a precipitous cognitive and physical decline in recent years. If she were present in the Senate it’s likely that staff and colleagues could pick up the slack and cover for her. But that’s not the case. Taken together, these three facts make Feinstein’s situation categorically different even from Senators who have had to take lengthy time away from the Senate to recover from illness. There’s simply no argument for her remaining in office beyond personal pride and the awkwardness of the situation for those around her.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/gillibrands-weak-defense

Top executives of First Republic Bank sold millions of dollars of company stock in the two months before the bank’s shares plummeted during the panic over the health of regional lenders. The bank’s chief risk officer sold on March 6, according to government documents. Two days later, Silicon Valley Bank shocked the market and sent other banks into freefall. First Republic was among the worst hit.

Executives had been selling for months, the documents show. Executive Chairman James Herbert II has sold $4.5 million worth of shares since the start of the year. In all, insiders have sold $11.8 million worth of stock so far this year at prices averaging just below $130 a share. The bank’s chief credit officer, its president of private wealth management and chief executive together sold $7 million worth of stock. First Republic’s stock has tumbled further this week, falling 21% on Wednesday and an additional 22% as of midday Thursday, to $24.13. Credit-rating firm S&P Global Ratings downgraded the bank’s credit by four notches to a speculative or “junk” rating.

…As of Wednesday, First Republic is the only company listed on the S&P 500 index that doesn’t file its insider trades with the SEC, a Wall Street Journal analysis shows. Signature Bank was similarly exempted, but its shares were replaced in the index Wednesday after its closure on Sunday. The quirk in the reporting rules goes back to the Securities Act of 1933, which exempted banks from registering their securities with the SEC.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/first-republic-bank-executives-sold-12-million-in-stock-in-months-before-crash-ca6ce79e?mod=e2tw