Tag: dianne feinstein

Dianne Feinstein, 90, cedes power of attorney to daughter — but still serves in Congress

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein has relinquished power of attorney to her daughter — even as she continues to serve in Congress at the age of 90, according to a report.

The Democratic senator — who is the oldest member of Congress — has faced calls to resign after health complications kept her away from the Capitol for months earlier this year.

Since returning to Washington DC, she has appeared frail and has had a number of public mental lapses.

Feinstein handed over power of attorney to her daughter, 66-year-old Katherine Feinstein, in part to help handle legal battles over her late husband Richard Blum’s estate, the New York Times reported on Thursday.

In one dispute, Katherine, Feinstein’s only child, is at odds with Blum’s three daughters over the ownership of a luxury beach house owned by Feinstein, according to the paper.

In a separate lawsuit, the two families are feuding over Blum’s life insurance, which Feinstein claims she needs to cover her increasing medical costs, The Times reported.

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Colleagues Say Sen. Feinstein May Be ‘Mentally Unfit To Serve’

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is 88 and still serving in the Senate. Some colleagues are beginning to question whether she is still fit for office.

“When a California Democrat in Congress recently engaged in an extended conversation with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, they prepared for a rigorous policy discussion like those they’d had with her many times over the last 15 years,” The San Francisco Chronicle reported. “Instead, the lawmaker said, they had to reintroduce themselves to Feinstein multiple times during an interaction that lasted several hours.”

“Rather than delve into policy, Feinstein, 88, repeated the same small-talk questions, like asking the lawmaker what mattered to voters in their district, they said, with no apparent recognition the two had already had a similar conversation,” the paper said.

Of course, lawmakers don’t like to simply retire and fade away. They’ve spent their lives in the limelight and disappearing is their big fear. What’s more, when lawmakers die in office, they sometimes lay in state in the U.S. Capitol, a high honor.

But there is concern now that Feinstein is “rapidly deteriorating.”

“Four U.S. senators, including three Democrats, as well as three former Feinstein staffers and the California Democratic member of Congress told The Chronicle in recent interviews that her memory is rapidly deteriorating. They said it appears she can no longer fulfill her job duties without her staff doing much of the work required to represent the nearly 40 million people of California,” the Chronicle said in a piece headlined “Colleagues worry Dianne Feinstein is now mentally unfit to serve, citing recent interactions.”

Feinstein won’t be up for re-election until 2024, but she has filed paperwork indicating she might run again. In January 2021, she filed the initial re-election paperwork with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) last week, L.A. Magazine reported.

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Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein Introduces Bill to Require Proof of Covid Vax or Negative Test For Domestic Flights

Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein (CA) on Thursday introduced a bill to require proof of vaccination or negative Covid test for domestic flights.

The 88-year-old senator, who has been spotted in airports without a face mask throughout the pandemic, introduced the “US Air Travel Public Safety Act” which would force Americans to show their papers in order to move about the country.

“The U.S. Air Travel Public Safety Act would require the Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Aviation Administration to develop standards for airlines to verify that a person has either been vaccinated, tested negative for COVID-19 or has fully recovered from a coronavirus infection to be able to fly.” The Hill reported.

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Feinstein Accepts Lifetime Achievement Award From Bush Scion’s CCP-Backed Group

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) last week quietly accepted a lifetime achievement award from a foundation with deep ties to a Chinese Communist Party front group.

The George H.W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations honored Feinstein for her commitment to “a robust and mutually beneficial U.S.-China relationship.” The group is heavily funded by the China-U.S. Exchange Foundation, a Hong Kong-based think tank considered a key player in the Chinese Communist Party’s united front propaganda system. Axios reported last week that the Exchange Foundation gave the Bush foundation a five-year, $5 million grant in 2019 to promote ties between the United States and China.

U.S. officials have expressed concern that the Exchange Foundation serves as an influence agent for the Chinese government. CIA director William Burns testified at his February confirmation hearing that he ended a partnership with the group when he served as president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, citing the think tank’s influence activities. Feinstein attended that hearing as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Feinstein has come under scrutiny for China-related matters before. She said last year that China was “growing into a respectable nation” and cautioned against holding China accountable for the coronavirus pandemic. Feinstein also employed a suspected Chinese spy as a congressional aide for nearly two decades. She supported expanded trade relations with China while her husband sought business deals in the country.

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Ban on 205 Different ‘Assault Weapons’ Introduced by Sen. Feinstein

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Thursday introduced a ban on more than 200 “assault weapons” after the House passed two gun-control measures pertaining to background checks.

Her bill (pdf), called the “Assault Weapons Ban of 2021,” is co-sponsored by 34 Senate Democrats and would ban ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds—similar to the bans on magazines in New York state and California.

According to the legislation, which was also introduced in the House by Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), the ban would encompass more than 205 rifles. Feinstein’s bill would allow current owners of the guns to retain possession of them. If that gun is transferred, a person has to undergo an FBI background check before getting the firearm.

The bill also bans any weapon that has the capacity to use a magazine that isn’t a fixed ammunition magazine and has one or more characteristics such as a pistol grip, forward grip, a threaded barrel, a folding or telescoping stock, or a barrel shroud.

The bill “requires that grandfathered assault weapons are stored using a secure gun storage or safety device like a trigger lock” and prohibits the transfer of high-capacity ammunition magazines while banning “bump-fire stocks and other devices that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire at fully automatic rates,” according to a news release from Feinstein’s office. Bump-fire stocks were made illegal in March 2019.

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Feinstein, Who Pushed For Nationwide Mask Mandate, Seen Mask-less In Public

Democratic California Sen. Dianne Feinstein chatted with her aides maskless in the corridors of a government building before entering a Tuesday hearing, video showed.

The footage showed Feinstein standing outside a doorway in a building as she spoke with two men, both of whom were wearing masks. Feinstein then walks through the doorway maskless as another masked man holds the door open for her, video from The Recount shows.

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Nancy Pelosi’s Chief of Staff Is Chief Executive and Feinstein’s Husband a Major Shareholder at Dominion Ballot Counting Systems

During her discussion with Sidney Powell, Maria Bartiromo shared the following about the firm that runs the application used in Michigan where thousands of Trump votes were switched to Joe Biden.

Maria Bartiromo: I’ve also seen reports that Nancy Pelosi’s longtime Chief of Staff is a key executive of that company. Richard Bloom, Senator Feinstein’s husband is a significant shareholder of this company.

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Feinstein proposes withholding COVID-19 relief from states without mask mandates

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) called on the Senate on Thursday to support an amendment to the next coronavirus relief bill that would bar states that do not implement mask mandates from receiving stimulus funding.

In a statement from the senator’s office, Feinstein announced her intention to introduce the amendment and stated that it was time for Congress to step in and force states to implement such mandates to stop the virus from spreading.

“Wearing masks in public should be mandatory. Period. [Senate Majority] Leader [Mitch] McConnell [R-Ky.] said the Senate will take up the next coronavirus economic relief bill later this month. At that time, I intend to offer an amendment to prohibit sending funds to states that haven’t adopted a statewide mask requirement,” said Feinstein, a member of the Senate Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration.

“My hope has been that other governors would show the leadership to institute their own mask mandates, but so far that hasn’t happened. It’s time for Congress to step in. This is a matter of life or death, and partisan politics shouldn’t play a role,” she continued.

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