Lawmakers Descend on Aging Democrat Senator as Midterms Loom

Via TTN:

Are lawmakers targeting this California senator’s seat?

Reports from four senators and at least four senators and three former staffers that Dianne Feinstein’s memory is unreliable and “rapidly declining” are causing concern among some members of Congress. At 88 years old, Sen. Feinstein is the oldest member of Congress however now it seems that some Democrats are ready for her retirement in hopes of installing a younger Democrat in the seat.

The Washington Examiner reports:

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.”

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 her memory is lapsing.

“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.”

Despite some concern over Sen. Feinstein’s declining mental fitness House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is 82 years old, defended the fellow Californian.

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.” Pelosi said.