After several moments over the past months that have raised eyebrows among high profile Democrats, it is being reported by those close to her camp that US Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), is struggling with cognitive decline. Feinstein is 87 years old.
People close to Feinstein and who are familiar with California Democrat’s current situation say her increasing cognitive decline has been “evident for several years.”
Curiously, the media maintains that Feinstein was declining mentally for years but neither reporters nor members noted it before her recent election.https://t.co/Cy0wqXzp4f It was only after she hugged Graham after the Barrett hearing that she was declared effectively incompetent
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) December 10, 2020
One source close to Feinstein, 87, said she has been “seriously struggling” and that her short-term memory “has grown so poor that she often forgets she has been briefed on a topic, accusing her staff of failing to do so just after they have.”
Feinstein – who served as the mayor of San Francisco for a decade before winning a special election to replace outgoing US Senator Pete Wilson (R), who won California’s gubernatorial race in 1992, has been re-elected five times to the US Senate, serving almost 30 years in that position.
During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the overreach of Big Tech last month, Feinstein – then the ranking Democrat on the committee – lost track of where she was in testimony to ask Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey the same question twice.
Several sources inside the Senate say Dianne Feinstein, who is 87, struggles to remember briefings just after they take place—and that her cognitive decline has been evident for several years. @JaneMayerNYer reports. https://t.co/CfkA32S11v
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) December 10, 2020
Feinstein had been keeping a low profile, avoiding the cameras and the media, until the Judiciary Committee hearing incident.
The mental fitness and abilities of other aging politicians, including presidential hopeful Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), have also been questioned.
Several notable pundits have supposed that the public revelation of Feinstein’s condition is a “softening of the ground” for the possibility of removing Democrat presidential hopeful Joe Biden from the Oval Office should he win the 2020 General Election.
In October of 2020, Nancy Pelosi formed a committee under the authority of the 25th Amendment that would serve to evaluate the cognitive capacities of a sitting president should the need arise to remove him from office.