Dianne Feinstein

Longtime Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is showing clear signs of cognitive decline, according to a new report, leaving her colleagues in Congress ...

In November 2020, the Democrat participated in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. During her line of questioning, Feinstein repeated word-for-word an inquiry that Dorsey had already answered. But there’s no question I’m still serving and delivering for the people of California, and I’ll put my record up against anyone’s.” However, two senators who spoke to the Chronicle told the outlet that while they believe Feinstein partially recognizes them, she may not be able to recall their name or home state. “I have worked with her for a long time and long enough to know what she was like just a few years ago: always in command, always in charge, on top of details, basically couldn’t resist a conversation where she was driving some bill or some idea,” the lawmaker said. I think I am productive. She was an intellectual and political force not that long ago, and that’s why my encounter with her was so jarring.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) listens as the Senate Judiciary Committee begins debate on Ketanji Brown Jackson's nomination for the Supreme Court, on Capitol ...

“I have worked with her for a long time and long enough to know what she was like just a few years ago: always in command, always in charge, on top of the details, basically couldn’t resist a conversation where she was driving some bill or some idea. “Feinstein’s decline is an open secret on the Hill and anyone claiming otherwise is a liar,” the staffer said. Feinstein would be third in line for the presidency if Democrats retain control of the Senate in November, as Sen. Patrick Leahy’s retirement would make her Senate pro tempore. This isn’t the first time concern has been raised over Feinstein’s ability to carry out her job. The California Democrat recounted a recent exchange in which they had to reintroduce themselves to Feinstein several times over the course of a single conversation, and that Feinstein kept repeating questions, like asking what mattered most to voters in the lawmaker’s district. The only way Feinstein could be removed from office is through her retirement or a two-thirds vote in the Senate. Her term is up in 2024.

Veteran Senator Dianne Feinstein is sometimes unable to recognize longstanding colleagues or keep up with arguments in the chamber, according to a new ...

But there’s no question I’m still serving and delivering for the people of California, and I’ll put my record up against anyone’s.” with no apparent recognition the two had already had a similar conversation.” The Chronicle report says “four U.S. senators, including three Democrats, as well as three former Feinstein staffers and the California Democratic member of Congress” told them “that her memory is rapidly deteriorating” and that 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 sources said that on good days, Feinstein “is nearly as sharp as she used to be” and the Chronicle pointed out that she performed well during confirmation hearings for new Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. A source described as “a staffer for a California Democrat” told the paper, “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.” In a statement, Feinstein said: “The last year has been extremely painful and distracting for me, flying back and forth to visit my dying husband who passed just a few weeks ago. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that on one recent conversation with another lawmaker, Feinstein, 88, who recently lost her husband, “repeated the same small-talk questions…

The 88-year-old lawmaker is allegedly struggling to recognize colleagues and follow policy discussions, people close to the California Democrat told the San ...

“I don’t feel my cognitive abilities have diminished,” she told the Los Angeles Times in 2020, following the publication of the New Yorker report. “There’s no question I’m still serving and delivering for the people of California,” she said in a statement, “and I’ll put my record up against anyone’s.” While the colleagues who raised concerns about her condition said that her memory lapses “do not appear to be constant,” they recounted distressing episodes that raised significant questions about her ability to govern. Feinstein, whose term is not up until 2024 — at which point she will be 91 years old — has had a distinguished, groundbreaking political career — first as a San Francisco city official and mayor and, since 1992, a U.S. senator. She deserves better,” the lawmaker added. “And it’s getting worse.”

One lawmaker told the San Francisco Chronicle they had to "reintroduce themselves to Feinstein multiple times" in a single conversation.

Feinstein made two sets of remarks, according to the Chronicle. "But there's no question I'm still serving and delivering for the people of California, and I'll put my record up against anyone's." "I have worked with her for a long time and long enough to know what she was like just a few years ago: always in command, always in charge, on top of the details, basically couldn't resist a conversation where she was driving some bill or some idea. The senator has not held a town hall since 2017. The lawmaker who considered staging an intervention said they thought about doing so because they had to reintroduce themself to Feinstein multiple times during a single conversation that lasted several hours. Four US senators, three of them Democrats, told the Chronicle they'd seen Feinstein's memory "rapidly deteriorating" to the point where they worried it interfered with her ability to do her job without significant help from her staff.

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 ...

In 1992, she and Barbara Boxer became the first women to represent California in the Senate. In one instance, the former staffer recalled, they wanted Feinstein to sign off on something that would have advanced an important investigation. The episodes of the politician struggling to keep up with Senate business stand in sharp contrast with the Feinstein of years ago. “Senator Feinstein is a workhorse for the people of California and a respected leader among her colleagues in the Senate,” Pelosi said. She spoke about Halsted in present tense, according to another video provided to The Chronicle. They said they get the sense that Feinstein realizes she knows them but isn’t able to quickly recall their name or home state. Feinstein delivered a statement critical of the bill and expressed concerns about its targeting of California-based companies like Google, putting her at odds with most Democrats on the committee. The surveys represented a steep decline from 2005, when a Field Poll found that 54% of voters approved of her job performance, and 26% disapproved. Adding urgency to the recent concerns: If Democrats retain control of the Senate next year, Feinstein will succeed retiring Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy as the Senate’s president pro tem — putting her third in line for the presidency. 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. All of those who expressed concerns about Feinstein’s acuity said that doing so was painful because of their respect for the senator and her groundbreaking career. “The last year has been extremely painful and distracting for me, flying back and forth to visit my dying husband who passed just a few weeks ago,” she said.

The senator's deteriorating mental state is a tragedy—for herself, and for her constituents.

Still, it raises serious questions about the practicality of a Senate with no term or age limits, where staffers may work to keep knowledge of a legislator’s deteriorating mental state hidden from constituents. When staffers told her that she needed to speak again, she referred to Halsted in the present tense. At a memorial address for Port of San Francisco Commissioner Anne Halsted, Feinstein reportedly forgot to mention the woman who had died.

Concerns are growing about Dianne Feinstein's ability to finish out her Senate term. That won't dim the accomplishments of her extraordinary career, ...

For San Franciscans of a certain age, she will forever be known as the woman who stepped in at one extraordinary and tragic moment and helped us believe our city would survive. Feinstein is a trailblazer and one of the most successful women in American political history, but not one of its greatest senators. Her greatest legislative accomplishment remains her work on the assault weapons ban in 1994. But Feinstein was well liked, an electoral powerhouse long before California took on its current political shade of deep blue, and a generally reliable Democratic vote on major legislation. It was a foggy morning, and Feinstein greeted reporters at City Hall by telling them she would not seek reelection to the board of supervisors, San Francisco’s equivalent to the city council. As mayor, living primarily in tony Pacific Heights and Presidio Heights, she led the city through a tumultuous time of change. More recently, she literally embraced the Republican senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina at the conclusion of Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Feinstein’s mother was emotionally distant, according to her biographer Jerry Roberts, but she was close with her father, a prominent doctor who encouraged her ambition. There’s a photo of this caper in my high school yearbook. This kind of urban governance – later exemplified in Michael Bloomberg’s 12-year mayorship of New York City – is pretty common now. But San Francisco was always her home, even after three decades in Washington. This issue is being raised not by Republicans seeking to score political points, but by Democratic colleagues and congressional staff.

It's bad, and it's getting worse,” a Democratic senator said of the California lawmaker — who said in a statement, "I'm still an effective representative"

"Senator Feinstein is a workhorse for the people of California and a respected leader among her colleagues in the Senate," she said. She deserves better," the Democratic lawmaker said. "My attendance is good, I do the homework, I try to ask hard questions," she said at the time. At times, she was coherent and appeared composed, according to the report, which cited her turns questioning Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson during the Senate Judiciary Committee's confirmation hearings last month as an example of her good days. "I have worked with her for a long time and long enough to know what she was like just a few years ago: always in command, always in charge, on top of the details, basically couldn't resist a conversation where she was driving some bill or some idea. "Because I try to be very careful and I'm puzzled by it."

California Senator Dianne Feinstein released a statement Thursday after a news report detailed lawmakers' concern about her ability to serve in Congress.

California Senator Dianne Feinstein defended herself against her Democratic colleagues and said she has no plans to step down following a report that ...