Senator Dianne Feinstein, 88, says she will NOT step down before her term ends in 2024 despite fears from Democratic colleagues she is ‘mentally unfit to serve’

California Senator Dianne Feinstein said she won’t step down from her position before it ends in 2024, despite democratic colleagues saying they’re concerned she’s ‘mentally unfit to serve.’

Feinstein, 88, said she ‘regularly’ meets with leaders and isn’t ‘isolated,’ after four senators – three of them Democrats – a California Congress member, and three former staffers said that her short-term memory is deteriorating.

‘I see people. My attendance is good. I put in the hours. We represent a huge state. And so I’m rather puzzled by all of this,’ she told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Feinstein, one of the longest-serving senators, had long been renowned in Washington for an issue-focused passion and quick wit, but now people who have worked with the California lawmaker for years now say she has difficulty recognizing them and repeats the same few talking points.

The senator said no one had brought up these concerns to her directly.

‘No, that conversation has not happened,’ she told the Chronicle. ‘The real conversation is whether I’m an effective representative for 40 million people.’

Talk has been floated of persuading her to resign before her current term ends in 2024.

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