Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) was hospitalized on Tuesday for tripping and falling in her home, her office announced Wednesday morning.
The 90-year-old lawmaker was taken to the hospital and is now at home. Her staff released a statement about the matter, trying to downplay the incident.
“Senator Feinstein briefly went to the hospital yesterday afternoon as a precaution after a minor fall in her home. All of her scans were clear and she returned home,” the statement proclaimed.
They don’t describe what injuries she may have had, if any.
This is the latest incident involving questions about Feinstein’s health. She suffered from a bad case of shingles as well as other issues and was out for a couple of months from the Senate earlier in the year. But then when she came back there were a lot of questions about her cognitive abilities.
She even appeared confused about the fact that she’d been away from the Senate. She said she “hadn’t been gone,” and that she’d been working.
She again appeared to be confused during a hearing and didn’t seem to understand she was just supposed to say, “Aye” and instead launched into a prepared statement. She had to be told by one of her aides and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), who were caught helping her on a hot mic, to just say “Aye.”
Feinstein also appeared to be confused about her announcement that she didn’t intend to run again, in February of this year. When she was asked about the statement released from her office on the matter, she said she hadn’t made that decision yet and didn’t seem to know that her people had put out a statement.
But the problems had been there even before her bout with shingles, with people reporting her problems to remember people’s names and recall conversations, and appearing confused since at least last year.
On top of all that, she’s reportedly given her power of attorney to her daughter. Yet she’s still serving in office as a senator, with a lot of help from her staff.
Questions have been raised about all the backstory of fighting for the seat to replace her and why some might want her to stay in the seat until her term is up so she isn’t replaced by an appointment from Gavin Newsom. But the priority should be what’s best for the country and what’s best for her health, not what helps the Democratic Party or certain people in the Democratic Party.
That doesn’t seem to be what’s going on here.
It’s good to hear that she’s okay, at least from what they are willing to tell us. But she should retire and take it easy, and allow a senator who can fully serve to take her place. Because that is what the people of California and the American people deserve. We see that Democrats don’t seem to care about such issues with Joe Biden, so I don’t expect them to acknowledge them with Feinstein either.
