California Senator Dianne Feinstein announced her retirement on Tuesday, but an hour later was unaware she'd done so. The episode appears to validate previous reporting of her serious short-term memory failures...and demonstrate that the 89-year-old Democrat has already stayed in Washington far too long.
On Tuesday, her office posted a statement announcing she wouldn't seek reelection. “I am announcing today I will not run for reelection in 2024 but intend to accomplish as much for California as I can through the end of next year when my term ends," she was quoted as saying.
However, just a couple hours later, Feinstein was unaware she'd announced her coming retirement. Several reporters say that, when a press gaggle asked her about her it, Feinstein said, "I haven't made that decision. I haven't released anything."
When a staffer told Feinstein that her office had indeed released a statement, Feinstein said, "You put out the statement? I didn't know they put it out...Okay, well, it is what it is."
While there's no video, the National Journal's Savannah Behrmann posted an audio recording of the exchange with the oldest member of Congress:
Feinstein's announcement signals the beginning of the end of an awkward situation for Democrats, who've grown increasingly anxious about her mental state. Last year, Democrat-favoring media outlets -- including her hometown San Francisco Chronicle -- began publishing articles with troubling accounts from Capitol Hill legislators and staffers.
In May, The New York Times ran an extensive article titled "As Feinstein Declines, Democrats Struggle to Maintain an Open Secret." Here are two pointed excerpts:
While it's good that Feinstein has announced her retirement, it seems clear she has no business lingering another two years in the Imperial Senate. Were she to leave before the end of her term, California Governor Gavin Newsom would have the power to appoint a replacement until the next election.
Even before she announced her retirement, two ambitious Democrats had apparently tired of waiting for Feinstein to make a graceful exit -- or chose to help force the issue: In January, Representatives Katie Porter and Adam Schiff announced campaigns to run for Feinstein's seat in 2024.
Over her career, Feinstein racked up three identify-politics trophies: first woman to be mayor of San Francisco, first woman to chair the Senate Judiciary Committee and longest-serving female senator. If she continues stumbling around the Senate until the end of her term, she will have served 32 years after she first won a special 1992 election to fill a seat vacated by Republican Pete Wilson, who resigned to become governor.
While liberty-minded Americans rightly loathe the vast majority of her agenda and especially her relentless pursuit of gun control, there's at least one bright spot on her record: her drive to expose the Deep State's lies about its post-9/11 torture program -- which included false claims about its effectiveness in extracting useful intelligence.