California Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein (89) recently returned by private jet to the Capitol after being away for almost three months while being treated for shingles. On Tuesday, she spoke with reporters and insists that she was never absent from work.
Jim Newell of Slate was there:
I asked her how she was feeling.
"Oh, I'm feeling fine. I have a problem with the leg." A fellow reporter staking out the elevator asked what was wrong with the leg.
"Well, nothing that's anyone concern but mine," she said.
When the fellow reporter asked her what the response from her colleagues had been like since her return, though, the conversation took an odd turn.
"No, I haven't been gone," she said.
OK.
"You should follow the—I haven't been gone. I've been working."
When asked whether she meant that she'd been working from home, she turned feisty.
"No, I've been here. I've been voting," she said. "Please. You either know or don't know."
This is incorrect. She was in California and missed more than 90 votes during her absence.
In February Feinstein (or someone on her staff) released a statement that read: "I am announcing today I will not run for reelection in 2024 but intend to accomplish as much for California as I can through the end of next year when my term ends."
