OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Some Senate Democrats are becoming increasingly concerned over a colleague who has been serving in the Congress and the upper chamber for decades.
“When a California Democrat in Congress recently engaged in an extended conversation with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, they prepared for a rigorous policy discussion like those they’d had with her many times over the last 15 years,” The San Francisco Chronicle reported.
“Instead, the lawmaker said, they had to reintroduce themselves to Feinstein multiple times during an interaction that lasted several hours,” the paper added.
“Rather than delve into policy, Feinstein, 88, repeated the same small-talk questions, like asking the lawmaker what mattered to voters in their district, they said, with no apparent recognition the two had already had a similar conversation,” said the Chronicle.
Most lawmakers appear content to serve out their lives in Congress rather than do a stint and return home, allowing others to serve for a change. Feinstein, quite obviously, is one of them.
Now do Biden 🤨
Four insiders say Senator Diane Feinstein’s memory is rapidly deteriorating. https://t.co/uelcFZicTV
— Kitchen Table Politics (@TheKTofPolitics) April 14, 2022
Colleagues worry Dianne Feinstein is now mentally unfit to serve, citing recent interactions https://t.co/0eWxjRhCcm
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) April 14, 2022
But in recent months, her colleagues have become concerned that she is suffering major cognitive decline and is no longer really fit to serve.
“Four U.S. senators, including three Democrats, as well as three former Feinstein staffers and the California Democratic member of Congress told The Chronicle in recent interviews that her memory is rapidly deteriorating. They said it appears she can no longer fulfill her job duties without her staff doing much of the work required to represent the nearly 40 million people of California,” the Chronicle said in a story that is headlined, “Colleagues worry Dianne Feinstein is now mentally unfit to serve, citing recent interactions.”
Worse, Feinstein isn’t up for reelection until 2024, but by all accounts — for now, anyway — she was planning to run again.
In January 2021, she filed the initial re-election paperwork with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), L.A. Magazine reported.
“To be clear, Senator Feinstein has had a campaign committee since she took office, as all senators must. In order to keep this account active, the senator has to maintain filings with the FEC. Yesterday’s filings merely reflected an updated address,” a representative for Feinstein told the magazine, though he added: “I have no announcement on the senator’s future plans at this time.”
As for Feinstein’s alleged mental condition, “It’s bad, and it’s getting worse,” one Democratic senator told the Chronicle. “This person said that within the Senate, Feinstein has difficulty keeping up with conversations and discussions.”
“There’s a joke on the Hill, we’ve got a great junior senator in Alex Padilla and an experienced staff in Feinstein’s office,” a staffer for a California Democrat noted.
