The centrist Democrat was elected to the Senate in 1992 in the "Year of the Woman" and broke gender barriers throughout her long career in local and national politics.
Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, a centrist Democrat who was elected to the Senate in 1992 in the "Year of the Woman" and broke gender barriers throughout her long career in local and national politics, has died. She was 90.
Although Feinstein was not always embraced by the feminist movement, her experiences coloured her outlook through her five decades in politics. A fierce debater who did not suffer 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 declined and she often became confused when answering questions or speaking publicly. In February 2023, she said she would not run for a sixth term the next year.
Although Feinstein was not always embraced by the feminist movement, her experiences coloured her outlook through her five decades in politics. A fierce debater who did not suffer 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.
"I'm not a sixth grader," Feinstein snapped back at the much younger Cruz -- a moment that later went viral. One of Feinstein's most significant legislative accomplishments was early in her career, when the Senate approved her amendment to ban manufacturing and sales of certain types of assault weapons as part of a crime bill that President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1994.
Feinstein sometimes frustrated liberals by adopting moderate or hawkish positions that put her at odds with the left wing of the Democratic Party, as well as with the more liberal Boxer, who retired from the Senate in 2017. Feinstein defended the Obama administration's expansive collection of Americans' phone and email records as necessary for protecting the country, for example, even as other Democratic senators voiced protests.
Liberal advocacy groups that had fiercely opposed Barrett's nomination to replace the late liberal icon Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg were furious and called for her to step down from the committee leadership.
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