Senator Dianne Feinstein denied Friday that she’s losing her mental ability to represent California and said she doesn’t plan to retire anytime soon, but the oldest member of the Senate is facing new pressure to step aside.
The New Yorker detailed claims in alarming fashion that Sen. Feinstein is not what she used to be.
The San Francisco Chronicle ran an opinion piece by Southern California author Steve Kettmann, calling for the senator to call it a career.
Kettmann, who worked closely with the late Senator Robert Byrd when he was in decline, told KCBS Radio he sees a similar fade in Sen. Feinstein, and it’s never easy for someone like that to recognize when it’s time to go.
“They have to look in the mirror and face facts and accept that it’s time,” he said. “It’s time. Just like every pro-athlete has to figure out a time when it’s time to leave the stage, so do senators and congressional representatives, and others in public life.”
Sen. Feinstein is pushing back on that, telling CNN she still works hard and can do her job.
However, she didn’t commit to finishing this term, which runs through 2024. And at 87, she’s hinted before that she might not, depending on her own and her husband’s health.
“She needs to pick the right time,” Kettmann said. “Not just after a New Yorker article raises a lot of very serious questions, not just when there’s a media frenzy, but she has to figure out a way to do it when the timing feels right for her.”
Sen. Feinstein has declined KCBS Radio’s repeated requests for an interview.
