Dianne Feinstein remembered for trailblazing, bridge-building career
U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, who died this week, was a centrist Democrat who was elected to the Senate in the “Year of the Woman” in 1992 and broke gender barriers during her long career in local and national politics.
Three people familiar with the situation confirmed her death to The Associated Press on Friday.
Ms. Feinstein, the oldest sitting U.S. senator, was a passionate advocate for liberal priorities important to her state — including environmental protection, reproductive rights and gun control — but was also known as a pragmatic lawmaker who reached out to Republicans and sought a middle ground. .
She was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1969 and became the first female president in 1978, the same year Mayor George Moscone was shot at City Hall along with Supervisor Harvey Milk by Dan White, a disgruntled former supervisor. Mrs. Feinstein found Mr. Milk’s body.
After Mr. Moscone’s death, Ms. Feinstein became San Francisco’s first female mayor. In the Senate, she was one of California’s first two female senators, the first woman to lead the Senate Intelligence Committee and the first woman to serve as the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee.
Although Ms. Feinstein was not always embraced by the feminist movement, her experiences colored her views during her five decades in politics.
“I recognize that women have had to fight for everything they have been given, and that is their right,” she told The Associated Press in 2005, as the Judiciary Committee prepared to hold hearings on President George W.’s nomination. Bush of John Roberts to replace Sandra Day O. ‘Connor on the Supreme Court.
“So I have to tell you that I try to look out for women’s rights. “I also try to solve problems as I see them, with legislation, and reaching out where I can, and working across the aisle,” she said.
Her propensity for bipartisanship helped her win legislative victories throughout her career. But it also proved to be a problem in her later years in Congress, as her state became more liberal and the Senate and electorate became increasingly polarized.
A fierce debater who was not impressed by fools, the California senator was long known for her verbal zingers and sharp comebacks when challenged on the issues about which she was most fervent. But she lost that edge in her later years in the Senate, as her health visibly deteriorated and she often became confused when answering questions or speaking in public. In February 2023, she said she would not run for a sixth term. And within weeks of that announcement, she was absent from the Senate for more than two months as she recovered from a bout of shingles.
Amid concerns about her health, Ms. Feinstein stepped down as the top Democrat on the judiciary panel after the 2020 election, just as her party was poised to capture the majority. In 2023, she said she would not serve as Senate president pro tempore, or as the senior-most member of the majority party, even if she was in line to do so. The president pro tempore opens the Senate every day and performs other ceremonial duties.
One of Ms. Feinstein’s most significant legislative achievements came early in her career when the Senate passed her amendment to ban the manufacture and sale of certain types of assault weapons as part of a crime bill that President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1994 . The gun ban expired ten years later and was never extended or replaced. It was a poignant victory after her career was significantly shaped by gun violence.
Ms. Feinstein often talked about the moment she found Mr. Milk’s body while pushing for stricter gun control measures.
She had little patience with Republicans and others who opposed her on this issue, although she was often challenged. In 1993, during a debate on the assault weapons ban, Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, accused her of not having enough knowledge about guns and the issue of gun control.
Ms. Feinstein spoke fiercely about the violence she witnessed in San Francisco, responding, “Senator, I know something about what guns can do.”
Two decades later, after 20 children and six educators were killed in a horrific school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, first-term Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas similarly challenged Ms. Feinstein during a debate over legislation that would permanently ban the guns. have banned.
“I’m not a sixth grader,” Ms. Feinstein snapped back at the much younger Mr. Cruz — a moment that later went viral. She added, “It’s okay that you want to lecture me about the Constitution. I can appreciate. Just know that I have been here for a long time.”
Ms. Feinstein became mayor of San Francisco after the killings of Mr. Moscone and Mr. Milk in 1978, leading the city during one of the most turbulent periods in its history. Even her critics provided a calming influence to Ms. Feinstein, and she was re-elected on her own to two four-year terms.
With her success and growing statewide recognition came visibility on the national political stage.
In 1984, Mrs. Feinstein was seen as a vice-presidential possibility for Walter Mondale, but she faced questions about the business dealings of her husband, Richard Blum. In 1990, she used news footage of her announcing the murders of Mr. Moscone and Mr. Milk in a television ad that helped her win the Democratic nomination for governor of California, making her the first female gubernatorial candidate for a major party in the history of became the state.
Although she narrowly lost the general election to Republican Pete Wilson, the stage was set for her election to the Senate two years later to fill the Senate seat vacated by Mr. Wilson to run for governor.
Ms. Feinstein campaigned alongside Barbara Boxer, who ran for the other U.S. Senate seat, and both won, benefiting from positive coverage and excitement about their historic race. California had never had a female U.S. senator, and female candidates and voters were galvanized by the Supreme Court hearings in which the all-male Senate committee questioned Anita Hill about her allegations of sexual harassment against candidate Clarence Thomas.
Ms. Feinstein was appointed to the Judiciary panel and eventually the Senate Intelligence Committee, becoming chairman in 2009. She was the first woman to lead the Intelligence panel, a high-profile position that gave her a central oversight role over controversies about the American intelligence services. setbacks and triumphs, from the killing of Osama bin Laden to leaks about National Security Agency surveillance.
Under Ms. Feinstein, the Intelligence Committee conducted a sweeping, five-year investigation into CIA interrogation techniques during the administration of President George W. Bush, including the waterboarding of terrorism suspects in secret overseas prisons. The resulting 6,300-page “torture report” concluded, among other things, that waterboarding and other “enhanced interrogation techniques” did not provide significant evidence in the hunt for bin Laden. A 525-page summary was released in late 2014, but the rest of the report has remained secret.
The Senate investigation at the time was fraught with intrigue, including documents mysteriously disappearing and accusations between the Senate and the CIA that the other was stealing information. The drama was chronicled in a 2019 film about the investigation called “The Report,” and actor Annette Bening was nominated for a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Ms. Feinstein.
In the years since, Ms. Feinstein has continued to aggressively push for the report’s eventual release.
“It is my strong belief that this report should be released one day,” Ms. Feinstein said. “This must be a lesson learned: that torture doesn’t work.”
Ms. Feinstein at times frustrated liberals by taking moderate or hawkish positions that put her at odds with the left wing of the Democratic Party, as well as with the more liberal Ms. Boxer, who retired from the Senate in 2017. Ms. Feinstein defended the liberals. The Obama administration’s extensive collection of U.S. phone and email records needed to protect the country, for example, even as other Democratic senators protested. “It’s called protecting America,” Ms. Feinstein said at the time.
That tension escalated during Donald Trump’s presidency, when many Democrats showed little appetite for compromise. Ms. Feinstein became the top Democrat on the Judiciary panel in 2016. She led her party’s messaging through three Supreme Court nominations — a role that angered liberal advocacy groups who wanted to see a more aggressive party member at the helm.
Ms. Feinstein closed the confirmation hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett with a hug from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and an audience that thanked him for a job well done. “This was one of the best hearings I have participated in,” Ms. Feinstein said at the end of the hearing.
Liberal advocacy groups that had fiercely opposed Ms. Barrett’s nomination to replace late liberal icon Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg were outraged and called on her to resign from committee leadership.
A month later, Ms. Feinstein announced that she would remain on the committee but would step down as the top Democrat. The senator, then 87 years old, did not say why. In a statement, she said she would “continue to do my utmost to bring about positive change in the years to come.”
Mrs. Feinstein was born on June 22, 1933. Her father, Leon Goldman, was a prominent surgeon and professor of medicine in San Francisco, but her mother was a violent woman with a violent temper that was often directed against Mrs. Feinstein and her mother. two younger sisters.
Ms. Feinstein graduated from Stanford University in 1955 with a bachelor’s degree in history. She married young and was a divorced single mother to her daughter, Katherine, in 1960, at a time when such a status was still unusual.
In 1961, Mrs. Feinstein was appointed by then-Gov. Pat Brown to the women’s parole board, which she served on before running for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Typical of the time, much of the early coverage of her entry into public life focused on her appearance, and she was invariably described as stunning, tall, slim and raven-haired.
Mrs. Feinstein’s second husband, Bert Feinstein, was 19 years her senior, but she described the marriage as “a 10” and kept his name even after his death from cancer in 1978. In 1980 she married investment banker Richard Blum, and his wealth made her one of the richest members of the Senate. He died in February 2022.
In addition to her daughter, Ms. Feinstein has a granddaughter, Eileen, and three stepchildren. She was 90.
This story was reported by The Associated Press.