By Kate Reynolds
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) died Thursday, Sept. 28 at 90. She was the oldest sitting member of Congress.
Feinstein was going through a string of health issues over the past year. A shingles diagnosis kept her away from the Senate for almost three months. Some House Democrats were asking for her resignation, but Feinstein ignored them, refusing all calls for her resignation. She did announce in February she would be retiring when her term ended in 2024.
Over the past several years, reports have been spreading about Feinstein’s loss of her mental capabilities. When she returned to her Senate seat in May, she was in a wheelchair and noticeably weak. She told
Reports that Feinstein’s mental faculties had faded have circulated over the past several years and were evident in public when she returned to the Capitol in May noticeably frail and in a wheelchair.
According to the New York Post, when a reporter asked a returning Feinstein about the reception she received from her colleagues, she lashed out at the journalist, indicating that she was unaware she had ever been absent.
“No, I haven’t been gone,” Feinstein said. “You should follow the — I haven’t been gone. I’ve been working.”
When asked if she meant that she’d been working from home, the senior senator from California responded, “No, I’ve been here. I’ve been voting. Please. You either know or don’t know.”
“Senator Feinstein never backed away from a fight for what was just and right. At the same time, she was always willing to work with anyone, even those she disagreed with, if it meant bettering the lives of Californians or the betterment of our nation,” her chief of staff, James Sauls, said in a statement.
“There are few women who can be called senator, chairman, mayor, wife, mom and grandmother. Senator Feinstein was a force of nature who made an incredible impact on our country and her home state.”
Feinstein was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1969 and later served as the board’s first female president in 1978. On Nov. 27 of that year, San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were killed by a former supervisor, Dan White. Feinstein became the first woman to serve as the city’s mayor when she succeeded Moscone. Feinstein was elected as a California Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 1992. She was the first woman to serve as a senator from that state.