Dianne Feinstein Says She Was Unaware Staff Issued Statement Announcing Her Retirement

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said she did not know her office released a statement saying she will not seek reelection in 2024.

“I am announcing today I will not run for reelection in 2024 but intend to accomplish as much for California as I can through the end of next year when my term ends,” Feinstein, 89, said in the statement.

Later on Tuesday, reporters at the Capitol asked her about the announcement.

“I haven’t made that decision,” she said, according to Savannah Behrman of the National Journal. “I haven’t released anything.”

A Feinstein staffer then told her, “We put out the statement.”

“You put out the statement?” the senator replied, seemingly surprised.

Feinstein has faced calls from some Democrats to step down or at least retire at the end of her term in 2025. Numerous reports about the senator point to a cognitive decline that they say hinders her ability to effectively serve her 40 million constituents.

As the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020, Feinstein praised Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) over the hearings that shepherded Amy Coney Barrett into the Supreme Court seat formerly held by Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Democrats blasted Republicans for ramming through a nomination less than two months before a presidential election.

That came just four years after the Republican-controlled Senate refused to hold hearings for Barack Obama’s nominee after Antonin Scalia died in 2016 – nine months before that year’s election. Republicans claimed the process would occur too close to the election.

Feinstein called the Coney Barrett hearings “the best set of hearings that I’ve participated in.”

Her remarks outraged Democrats, so much so that Democratic leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) stated he had a “serious talk” with Feinstein over the comment.

Eventually, she stepped down as the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee.

Democratic Reps. Katie Porter (D-CA) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) had already declared their candidacies before Feinstein’s announcement.