Sen. Dianne Feinstein listens to Senate testimony on Capitol Hill on May 11.
Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images
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Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images
Sen. Dianne Feinstein listens to Senate testimony on Capitol Hill on May 11.
Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images
Journalist Rebecca Traister begins writing a profile of the longest sitting US senator, Dianne Feinstein of California, who will turn 89 on June 22. And while Traister’s standout work focuses on Feinstein’s long career, it also raises questions about the senator’s perception. Health.
NPR’s All things Considered spoke to Traister, a writer for The Cut, about a disturbing call she had with Feinstein two days after a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
“For me, I feel deeply disconnected from the very urgent and cold reality we’re in the middle of,” Traister said. All things Considered.
Traister had a 30-minute phone conversation with Feinstein during her reporting for her featured piece, titled “Dianne Feinstein, Institutionalist.” She writes:
Nothing she said suggests a recession beyond what’s normal for someone her age, but it also doesn’t demonstrate any urgent engagement with other crises. each other that the country is facing. … Every question I asked – about the radicalization of the GOP, the end of Roecongressional failures – met with similar impermeability, evoking a limitless belief in institutional power that could in fact explain a lot about where Feinstein and the Democratic Party leaders were other was wrong.
With the United States grappling with various crises and at a tense political time with the expected reversal of Roe v. Wadeoptimism feels lost.
Traister has made it clear that she does not make any definitive comments on Feinstein’s cognitive health, nor does she feel qualified to do so. However, she is not First Person to perform Feinstein’s cognitive health observations.
A mistake by Feinstein at the 2020 hearing further raised questions about her health and the age of the senators.
“Actually, over the last couple of years, I’ve heard that Dianne Feinstein has been struggling, especially with short-term memory problems, so her staff would brief her and then she she will forget what she was told or that she was briefly introduced, “Jane Mayer of New Yorkers told All things Considered in 2020.
Mayer wrote a article highlights issues of how Democrats approach seniority and how Feinstein became central to that debate. In 2018, California Democratic Party declined to endorse Feinstein for another term, though that was no barrier to her re-election.
The current political system rewards seniority, motivating elected officials to extend their terms for as long as possible. Not only can individuals stay in power, Traister notes, but there are benefits to the states when there are high-ranking officials.
“We are run by democracy on both the Democratic and Republican sides,” Traister said. “The Senate works by giving power to those who have been there the longest.”
Feinstein is not the first senator to stay long, and some have pointed to her gender as a reason for scrutiny. Notably, Strom Thurmond remained in the Senate until he was 100 years old.
With the 2024 election underway, Feinstein is not aiming for an early withdrawal and has maintained that she intends to serve until the end of her term, Politico reported.
