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Dianne Feinstein, California’s longest-serving senator, dies at 90
CNBC ^ | SEP 29 20238:49 AM | Kevin Breuninger

Posted on 09/29/2023 6:07:41 AM PDT by Red Badger

KEY POINTS

* Dianne Feinstein, the oldest member of the U.S. Senate and the longest-serving senator from California, has died at age 90.

* Feinstein’s death leaves vacant her powerful Senate seat, requiring Gov. Gavin Newsom to appoint a temporary successor.

* The Democratic senator’s decades-long career was studded with major legislative achievements on issues including gun control and the environment.

* Ranking member Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) attends a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing examining issues facing prisons and jails during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on Capitol Hill June 2, 2020 in Washington, D.C.

Dianne Feinstein, the oldest member of the U.S. Senate and the longest-serving senator from California, has died at age 90, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News on Friday.

The Democrat’s passing marks the end of a boundary-pushing political career that spanned more than half a century, studded with major legislative achievements on issues including gun control and the environment.

Feinstein had planned to retire at the end of her current term in 2024.

Feinstein’s death leaves vacant her powerful Senate seat, requiring Gov. Gavin Newsom to appoint a temporary successor.

A San Francisco native, Feinstein cleared a path for women in politics as she rose the ranks of leadership. After two failed bids for mayor, she was elected president of San Francisco’s board of supervisors in 1978, becoming the first woman to hold the title.

Feinstein was made acting mayor of the city later that year, after then-Mayor George Moscone and Harvey Milk, her colleague on the board of supervisors, were assassinated by Dan White, a former member of the same board.

In later interviews, Feinstein recalled finding Milk’s body and searching for a pulse by putting her finger in a bullet hole.

Feinstein was the first to announce the murders to the press. She was appointed mayor a week later, again becoming the first woman elevated to the office.

The tragedy had the side effect of jumpstarting Feinstein’s political career, but the trauma of the day stuck with her even decades later.

“I never really talk about this,” Feinstein said with a sigh when asked about the murders in a CNN interview in 2017.

Her streak of firsts continued at the national level. Feinstein lost a gubernatorial bid in 1990, but two years later won a special election to the U.S. Senate, becoming California’s first female senator.

Weeks later, the state’s second female senator, Barbara Boxer, was sworn into office, making California the first state in the U.S. to be represented in the Senate by two women.

Their 1992 elections helped define the “Year of the Woman,” in which four Democratic women were newly elected to the Senate — more than doubling the chamber’s female representation.

In the Senate, Feinstein clinched some of her biggest legislative achievements. She wrote and championed the 1994 assault weapons ban, both a landmark bill and a continuation of a career-long effort to enact stricter gun controls.

The legislation passed Congress and was signed by then-President Bill Clinton, albeit with major compromises including a 10-year sunset provision. The ban expired in 2004 during the administration of George W. Bush.

She also sponsored bills that protect millions of acres of California’s desert, worked to create a nationwide AMBER alert network, helped reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act and fought for the release of a lengthy report detailing the CIA’s torture practices, among other accomplishments.

Over her three decades in the Senate, Feinstein has generally been seen as a political moderate in her party. In the 1990s and 2000s, that reputation made Feinstein highly popular — but much of that popularity eroded in the proceeding years as California’s political tint shifted toward deeper shades of blue.

As her centrism grew increasingly out of fashion, Feinstein’s standing in her final stretch in office was further diminished by a crescendo of skepticism about her mental fitness for the Senate.

A damning report from the San Francisco Chronicle in April 2022 featured unnamed Democratic colleagues of Feinstein fretting over her apparent decline in mental acuity. Feinstein defended her ability to govern, while acknowledging that she had been going through an “extremely painful and distracting” period as her late husband, financier Richard Blum, had battled cancer.

By the time Feinstein announced that she would not seek reelection at the end of her term in 2024, multiple Democratic politicians had already launched campaigns to succeed her.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; Politics/Elections; US: California
KEYWORDS: byedifi; thegooddieyoung
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To: Red Badger

“The witch is dead!”

Watch out for whom Spavin Gavin appoints.


121 posted on 09/29/2023 7:22:35 AM PDT by Candor7 (( Ask not for whom THE Trump trolls...He trolls for thee!)<img src=""width=500></img>)
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To: Gay State Conservative

She’s a kneepad kind of girl.


122 posted on 09/29/2023 7:23:03 AM PDT by MTsumi
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To: BenLurkin

What does she always find so hysterically funny?


123 posted on 09/29/2023 7:24:21 AM PDT by Blue Highway
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To: Red Badger

Say hello to Adolf.....


124 posted on 09/29/2023 7:25:03 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: All

.
No dignity for Diane

Politics over everything


125 posted on 09/29/2023 7:25:03 AM PDT by AnthonySoprano (Impeachment is necessary since Deep State is blocking )
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To: central_va

Her heroes, Marx & Lenin.............


126 posted on 09/29/2023 7:26:33 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: All
E4-DA4-E38-F176-47-D5-9862-A3-CAE791-FFB8
how to upload photos in internet

127 posted on 09/29/2023 7:27:57 AM PDT by AnthonySoprano (Impeachment is necessary since Deep State is blocking )
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To: AnthonySoprano

Looks like Deep State is about to intervene if the rumors on social media are on to something...


128 posted on 09/29/2023 7:28:55 AM PDT by mewzilla (Never give up; never surrender!)
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To: Red Badger

Hopefully Mitch McConnell won’t be too far behind in following Diane.


129 posted on 09/29/2023 7:29:11 AM PDT by tennmountainman (FUJB)
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To: tennmountainman
Mitch McConnell

He aged ten years and the past year, not looking much better than DiFi did a few weeks ago.

130 posted on 09/29/2023 7:30:52 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: LeonardFMason

Over 300 senators have died while in office.

Seems like a lot.


131 posted on 09/29/2023 7:31:34 AM PDT by Fuzz (. )
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To: Toespi

Probably a $blm party official.


132 posted on 09/29/2023 7:34:38 AM PDT by rktman (Destroy America from within? Check! WTH? Enlisted USN 1967 to end up with this💩? 🚫💉)
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To: All
644-FCC5-E-F3-E2-4-C66-8-F05-348-A354100-FE
133 posted on 09/29/2023 7:35:01 AM PDT by AnthonySoprano (Impeachment is necessary since Deep State is blocking )
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To: Red Badger

She still plans on voting for Joe Biden.


134 posted on 09/29/2023 7:35:12 AM PDT by Titus-Maximus (The trouble with socialism is that you soon run out of other people's zoo animals to eat.)
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To: Red Badger

Here comes gov hair cream to f up America. As Feinstein wasn’t bad enough, Newsom will replace her with a true modern wacko.


135 posted on 09/29/2023 7:38:46 AM PDT by DownInFlames (P)
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To: MIchaelTArchangel

“...pass each bill by at least 50 to 49.”

That will retard the passing of a bill for years as the recounts insisted by the libs will continue until someone gives up and they will have the 50 to 49 themselves. Look at elections for that history.

wy69


136 posted on 09/29/2023 7:39:18 AM PDT by whitney69
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To: Red Badger

Are they sure she is not just napping?


137 posted on 09/29/2023 7:40:30 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: Rummyfan

Agreed. Another example of staying onboard far too long, and it’s something I’ve harped about for many years now to everyone I know who is retired or reaching retirement years. Retire, enjoy your latter years, and love on the grandkids.


138 posted on 09/29/2023 7:42:35 AM PDT by ducttape45 (Proverbs 14:34, "Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.")
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To: Red Badger

The most obvious appointment by Newsom is Barbara Lee the black communist congresswoman from Berkeley. Or are communist and berkeley redundant?


139 posted on 09/29/2023 7:43:28 AM PDT by coalminersson
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To: Red Badger

“Dianne Feinstein, California’s longest-serving senator, dies at 90”
How were they able to tell?


140 posted on 09/29/2023 7:44:28 AM PDT by Demiurge2 (Define your terms!)
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