Newsom vows to appoint a Black woman to the Senate if Feinstein retires

On Monday's edition of MSNBC's "The ReidOut," Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) vowed to appoint a Black woman to succeed Sen. Dianne Feinstein if she were to step down early.

"We're out of time ... [but] this is a yes or no answer you can give me," said anchor Joy Reid. "If, in fact, Dianne Feinstein were to retire, will you nominate an African-American woman to restore the seat that Kamala Harris is no longer in the United States Senate, and do you have a name in mind?"

"I have multiple names in mind," said Newsom. "We have multiple names in mind, and the answer is yes."

Newsom's appointment of former California Secretary of State Alex Padilla to Vice President Harris' vacant Senate seat was a historic milestone; Padilla is the first ever Latino senator to represent California, a state where the Latino population exceeds the non-Hispanic white population. The side effect, however, is that the Senate no longer has any Black women, as Harris was the only one still in office.

Speculation has grown about whether California's other senator, Feinstein, will be able to serve out the remainder of her term, which ends in 2025. A recent report in The New Yorker suggested that Feinstein, age 87, is suffering from cognitive decline and struggles to remember details from hearings — allegations that her staffers vehemently deny.

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