Longtime Sen. Dianne Feinstein is showing clear signs of cognitive decline, according to a new report, leaving her colleagues in Congress scrambling for ways to persuade her to retire before her term expires in 2024.
“It’s bad, and it’s getting worse,” one Democratic senator told the San Francisco Chronicle, which also reported that a member of California’s congressional delegation who has known Feinstein (D-Calif.) for 15 years recently had to reintroduce themselves to her repeatedly over a discussion lasting several hours.
“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. “All of that is gone. She was an intellectual and political force not that long ago, and that’s why my encounter with her was so jarring. Because there was just no trace of that.”
The Chronicle report, which cited four of Feinstein’s Senate colleagues and three former staffers as well as the House member, indicated that the 88-year-old’s memory is rapidly deteriorating and her staff does much of her work.
“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,” one former aide remarked.
Feinstein, a former San Francisco mayor who was first elected to the Senate in 1992, has been one of the most powerful and prominent members of the chamber over the past three decades, chairing the Senate Intelligence Committee for six years and serving as ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee during the Trump administration.
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. One staffer who works for another senator claimed to have seen their boss preemptively introduce themselves to Feinstein in the Senate hallways, as if meeting her for the first time.
The sources who raised concern about Feinstein noted that she has good days as well as bad days, and occasionally appears like her old self.
The senator defended her performance in a statement shared with the Chronicle as well as The Post, saying: “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. 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.”
Feinstein’s husband, Richard Blum, passed away Feb. 27 at the age of 86 following a battle with cancer.
On Thursday afternoon, Feinstein issued a second statement in response to the Chronicle report, saying: “I remain committed to do what I said I would when I was re-elected in 2018: fight for Californians, especially on the economy and the key issues for California of water and fire.
“While I have focused for much of the past year on my husband’s health and ultimate passing, I have remained committed to achieving results and I’d put my record up against anyone’s,” she added. “In the past few months, I successfully led the reauthorization of the bipartisan Violence Against Women Act, secured more direct government funding for my state than any other Democratic senator other than the chairman of the Appropriations Committee [Patrick Leahy of Vermont] and secured additional funding to retain federal firefighters to help California prepare for the upcoming wildfire season.
“The real question is whether I’m still an effective representative for 40 million Californians,” Feinstein concluded, “and the record shows that I am.”
Several members of Congress defended Feinstein’s ability to do her job, with 82-year-old House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) saying she has not noticed a decline in her fellow Californian’s cognitive abilities.
“Senator Feinstein is a workhorse for the people of California and a respected leader among her colleagues in the Senate. She is constantly traveling between California and the Capitol, working relentlessly to ensure Californians’ needs are met and voices are heard,” Pelosi said in a statement decrying “ridiculous attacks that are beneath the dignity in which she has led and the esteem in which she is held.”
Feinstein’s Senate colleague Padilla told the Chronicle he was familiar with the concerns about her health, but added that “as someone who sees her multiple times a week, including on the Senate Judiciary Committee, I can tell you she’s still doing the job and doing it well.”
It is not the first time Feinstein’s mental acuity has come under scrutiny.
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. In the days that followed, Feinstein stepped down from her ranking member position, though she remained on the panel.
At the time, several people told the New Yorker that Feinstein’s short-term memory was deteriorating, saying she “often forgets she has been briefed on a topic, accusing her staff of failing to do so just after they have.”
One source claimed to the publication that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) had had several “painful” conversations with Feinstein about stepping aside, only for her to soon forget the discussions had taken place.
Additionally, many Democrats were concerned over Feinstein’s handling of the confirmation of President Donald Trump’s last Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, in the fall of 2020.
During the Judiciary Committee hearings, Feinstein bungled several questions and praised then-Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) for presiding over “one of the best set of hearings that I have participated in.”
Feinstein defended her ability to do her job at the time, saying, “I work hard. I have good staff. I think I am productive. And I represent the people of California as well as I possibly can.”
Last year, Feinstein filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to run again in 2024. However, she has not formally announced a decision about whether she will seek another term.
