Several members of Congress are concerned about the mental state of California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the oldest member of Congress.
At least four senators and three former staffers claimed the 88-year-old’s memory is “rapidly deteriorating,” as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. The report isn’t the first time Democrats have trained their fire on the veteran senator in recent years.
One lawmaker claimed to have had to be reintroduced several times to Feinstein over several hours as they talked policy. The lawmaker also claimed to have spoken with Feinstein about the same small-talk topics over several hours without any recognition from Feinstein that she had addressed the topic recently.
“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. All of that is gone,” one lawmaker said. “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.”
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The lawmakers claim Feinstein’s memory lapses don’t appear constant and will shift daily. While Feinstein held her composure during the confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who will become a justice on the Supreme Court this summer, some claimed she struggled to recognize her colleagues on other days.
Feinstein dismissed the allegations about her mental state and said she is still performing her job well.
“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,” Feinstein said. “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.”
Other members of Congress stood up to protect Feinstein, particularly in light of her husband’s death on March 4.
It is “unconscionable that, just weeks after losing her beloved husband of more than four decades and after decades of outstanding leadership to our city and state, she is being subjected to these ridiculous attacks that are beneath the dignity in which she has led and the esteem in which she is held,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.
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Feinstein faced similar accusations of declining mental fitness in the past. The New Yorker published a report in December 2020 on rumors that Feinstein struggled with cognitive decline, particularly in light of her conduct during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
