Longtime Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is already the oldest member of the Senate – and she might not be done yet.
Heading into Martin Luther King Day weekend, Feinstein filed the necessary paperwork to run again in 2024. She’d be 91 years old during the election… and expected to serve until the start of 2031, when she would be 97.
And that has people on the left and right alike raising questions not only about her age… but her reportedly diminished cognitive abilities, too.
Last year, she asked Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey a question during a hearing. Then, after he answered, she asked the exact same question again, word for word.
“Her inflection was eerily identical,” the New Yorker noted. “Feinstein looked and sounded just as authoritative, seemingly registering no awareness that she was repeating herself verbatim.”
Dorsey answered the question a second time, causing immediate concern among critics.
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Unnamed sources told the magazine Feinstein is “seriously struggling” and that “her short-term memory has grown so poor that she often forgets she has been briefed on a topic, accusing her staff of failing to do so just after they have.”
At times, Feinstein can seem “unreachable.”
The article caused UC Irvine law professor and CNN contributor Rick Hasan to call for Feinstein to step down.
“It’s time for Sen. Feinstein to retire,” he wrote on Twitter. “She did some great work in the Senate. But it’s been clear for the last few years that her cognitive decline is serious.”
Feinstein defended herself.
“I don’t feel my cognitive abilities have diminished,” she told The Los Angeles Times last month. “Do I forget something sometimes? Quite possibly.”
But she insisted she’s still passing bills and doing the work of legislating.
“You do get older, that’s true. But I have been productive,” she told the newspaper.
She also has another strike against her – one that has nothing to do with age or memory. And as far as the left’s concerned, it’s the biggest sin of all right now: She was nice to a Republican.
After last year’s contentious confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, she congratulated Sen. Lindsey Graham ,R-S.C., for how he handled the proceedings.
“This has been one of the best set of hearings that I’ve participated in,” she said. “It leaves one with a lot of hopes, a lot of questions and even some ideas perhaps of good bipartisan legislation we can put together.”
That, more than her age and memory, set off critics from her own side of the aisle.
“It’s time for Sen. Feinstein to step down from her leadership position on the Senate Judiciary Committee,” Brian Fallon of the progressive group Demand Justice wrote in a statement. “If she won’t, her colleagues need to intervene.”
Jon Lovett, a former aide to President Barack Obama, was blunter in his comments to The Washington Post: “That she can say this about this ongoing travesty is another sad statement about how poorly represented we are by Dianne Feinstein.”
After the outcry, she gave up her plum committee assignment.
It’s still not clear what Feinstein’s intentions are in 2024, as the FEC documents don’t necessarily mean she will run again.
They just allow her to keep the door open.
“To be clear, Senator Feinstein has had a campaign committee since she took office, as all senators must,” a spokesperson told Los Angeles magazine. “In order to keep this account active, the senator has to maintain filings with the FEC. Yesterday’s filings merely reflected an updated address.”
But her office didn’t shut down the idea, either, saying only they had nothing to announce with regards to her future.
If she does run, there’s no guarantee she’ll retain her seat.
Under California’s election system, the top finishers in a “blanket” primary face each other.
In 2018, she had to run against another Democrat – and while she won by nearly 10 points, she would likely face a much tougher challenge from a far more organized left in 2024.
Santiago Mayer, executive director of Voters of Tomorrow – a progressive group focused on young voters – said Feinstein’s time is up.
“Dianne Feinstein should step down,” he wrote on Twitter. “California has a goldmine full of impressive political talent, it’s time for her to pass the torch. If she runs again, I will work the campaign of whoever primaries her, and ensure she’s defeated.”
— Walter W. Murray is a reporter for The Horn News. He is an outspoken conservative and a survival expert.