It appears Joe Biden is not the only top-level Democrat in Washington who is displaying symptoms of cognitive decline.
California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 87, has had serious struggles with her short-term memory, and her “missteps” have raised concerns among colleagues, writes The New Yorker’s chief Washington correspondent, Jane Mayer.
Mayer pointed out that during a recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Feinstein asked Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey the same question twice.
Days later she said she would step down from her party’s senior position on the committee.
“Some former Feinstein aides insist that rumors of her cognitive decline have been exaggerated, and that video clips taken out of context can make almost anyone look foolish. They also bridle at singling out her condition, because declining male senators, including Strom Thurmond, of South Carolina and Robert Byrd of West Virginia, were widely known by the end of their careers to be non-compos mentis,” Mayer wrote.
But sources who spoke on background, who respect Feinstein for her accomplished career, “say her short-term memory has grown so poor that she often forgets she has been briefed on a topic, accusing her staff of failing to do so just after they have.”
“They describe Feinstein as forgetting what she has said and getting upset when she can’t keep up. One aide to another senator described what he called a ‘Kabuki’ meeting in which Feinstein’s staff tried to steer her through a proposed piece of legislation that she protested was ‘just words’ which ‘make no sense.’ Feinstein’s staff has said that sometimes she seems herself, and other times unreachable.”
“The staff is in such a bad position,” a former Senate aide who still has business in Congress told The New Yorker. “They have to defend her and make her seem normal.”
According to a former staffer, other members of the Democratic Party “were constantly trying to go around her because, as chair, she didn’t want to do anything, and she also didn’t want them doing anything.”
The concerns began two years ago when Democrats learned Feinstein’s office “sat on” Christine Blasey Ford claims about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
And they’re weren’t happy about her handling of Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination hearings this year.
She’s also been criticized for her statement during Barrett’s 2017 appellate court nomination hearings: “The dogma lives loudly in you – and that’s a concern,” violating the Constitution’s ban on a religious test for office.
The New Yorker said Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer even installed a trusted former aide, Max Young, to monitor Feinstein and make sure the Barrett Supreme Court nomination hearings didn’t “go off the rails.”
While Democrats wanted to portray the Republicans as “using brute power” to confirm Barrett, Feinstein instead hugged the Republican chairman of the committee, Lindsey Graham, thanking him for his “fairness.”
The New Yorker said Schumer then talked with Feinstein, and she “wasn’t really all that aware of the extent to which she’d been compromised.”
Some New Yorker sources said Feinstein should have retired in 2018. In a secret vote, Democrats created a new rule to stop top leadership in the Senate from holding a top position in more than one committee.
However, the New Yorker explained, Congress’ “gerontocracy problem shows no sign of abating.”
‘Excuse me’
Biden this week butchered not only the name of his nominee for HHS secretary but also the name of the federal agency.
During the campaign, a former White House physician who served both Barack Obama and President Trump said Biden “wouldn’t do well” on a cognitive test, and that’s why his staff wouldn’t allow one.
At a news conference during the campaign, Biden said: “Thirdly, we discussed the need to help states with Title 32 funding for the National Guard. That’s a fancy way of saying governors … governors … need to be able to get funding when they dispo … when they need to … uh … em … em … uh, bring their National Guard into play.”
Another time he addressed the Defense Production Act, which President Trump has used to support the supply chain for the nation’s COVID-19 response.
“I’m going to … we’re going to impose the … we’re going to enforce the … excuse me, employ the defense, reconstruct the act, to be able to go out there and dictate companies build and do following things,” Biden said.
See video of his remarks:
Everything’s fine pic.twitter.com/47kvZbZlUf
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) November 19, 2020
Biden: “I’m going to — we’re going to impose the — we’re going to enforce the — excuse me, employ the defense, reconstruct the act, to be able to go out there and dictate companies build and do following things.” pic.twitter.com/LSNrlwufDG
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) November 19, 2020
When Biden “blew up” at an autoworker in Detroit, Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume concluded the Democrat’s mental capabilities were faltering.
Among many other incidents, Biden flubbed an iconic line from the Declaration of Independence, inflated the COVID death toll to 873 times its actual size and mumbled his way through a sentence until admitting, “I don’t know.”
A former White House stenographer said Biden was losing his “mental acuity,” and a poll found 41% of Americans think he’s mentally “diminished.”
Content created by the WND News Center is available for re-publication without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].
This article was originally published by the WND News Center.
