Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) confused a black Republican colleague for a black Democrat in the Senate, according to a new report.
Ben Terris, a Washington Post writer and author, shared on Thursday what a Senate staffer recalls witnessing in an interaction between Feinstein and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), the sole black Republican member of the Senate who is now moving toward a presidential bid, sometime after Georgia’s January 2021 runoff elections.
“Feinstein had approached Senator Tim Scott, stuck out her hand, and told him she had been rooting for him and was so happy to have him serving with her in the Senate,” Terris reported in a story published by POLITICO.
“It was obvious to Scott and the staffers in tow that Feinstein had mistaken the South Carolinian for Raphael Warnock, the newly elected Democratic senator from Georgia,” Terris added. “Scott had played along. ‘Thank you so much,’ he had told Feinstein, according to the staffer who told me about the incident. ‘Your support means a lot.'”
The report noted that Feinstein’s office declined to comment on the anecdote.
Feinstein, who announced in February she would not seek re-election in 2024, returned to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, ending a months-long absence as she dealt with a case of shingles. Feinstein showed up to the Senate in a wheelchair and said her doctors recommended that she work a “lighter schedule” as she continues to recover.
At the age of 89, Feinstein is the Senate’s oldest member — and in recent years, some colleagues have begun to raise concerns about her mental fitness.
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Much of the report by Terris focused on Jamarcus Purley, a staffer whom Feinstein fired in 2022. While a termination letter cited performance issues, Purley reportedly thought he was being punished for telling “hard truths” about the senator.
The report noted that perhaps one of the “most memorable” comments Purley made to colleagues was his view that Feinstein cared “more about her dog, Kirby, than she does about black people.”
When told about Feinstein mistaking Scott for Warnock, Terris wrote that Purley leaped out of his chair and shouted: “This is what I’m talking about!”