September 29, 2023 09:56 AM UTC

Senator Dianne Feinstein Dies at 90

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• by: Colorado Pols

As The Washington Post reports:

During more than three decades in office, Feinstein delivered muscular support as well as withering criticism of the CIA, helped mold the federal bench, championed an assault weapons ban, and held down the center of the Democratic Party as it moved swiftly to the left.

Mrs. Feinstein’s death, at her home in Washington, was announced in a statement from her office, which did not give a cause. She was, at age 90, the oldest sitting member of the Senate and the subject of increasing scrutiny over her fitness to serve. Mrs. Feinstein was hospitalized in February with shingles, an illness later reported to have been complicated by encephalitis.

She returned to the Senate in May after a nearly three-month absence. Her inability during that time to vote on Biden administration judicial nominees, along with gathering evidence of her cognitive decline, led even some admirers to urge the senator to resign to avoid tarnishing what was by all accounts a remarkable legacy as a stateswoman. In August she was briefly hospitalized after a fall at her home in San Francisco.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom will now need to appoint Feinstein’s replacement in the U.S. Senate. Newsom had previously indicated that he would appoint an interim Senator in the even that Feinstein was no longer able to serve.