Dianne Feinstein Relies Heavily on Staff to Function in Senate
Since she has returned to work on a limited schedule as she recovers from shingles and multiple serious complications, Ms. Feinstein’s staff has made sure she is never alone and is heavily protected. The Capitol Police and the Senate sergeant-at-arms have gone to great lengths to keep Ms. Feinstein shielded from photographers and reporters, The Los Angeles Times reported, helping to create a bubble around her as aides run interference on her behalf.
Reporters have been asked at times to keep a respectful distance from the senator, while staff members have tried to hide her from photographers.
It is an awkward task for Ms. Feinstein’s aides, many of whom go back decades with her. They are wrestling with how to balance their work as public servants with their responsibilities to a vastly diminished lawmaker who remains in charge of representing California’s 40 million residents, and who sometimes makes public statements that are not true.
After The New York Times revealed this month that Ms. Feinstein had encephalitis brought on by shingles, a condition that had not been disclosed by her office, she denied the story, telling a CNN reporter who managed to approach her at the Capitol that she had merely had a “bad flu.” Her spokesman, Adam Russell, later released a statement correcting her and confirming that the senator had encephalitis, which he said had “resolved itself” in March. Mr. Russell said she also had Ramsay Hunt syndrome, which can cause facial paralysis.
“They have a responsibility to give her brutally honest counsel and then adhere to her wishes, as she — and not they — were elected,” David Axelrod, a former top adviser to former President Barack Obama, said. “And they have an obligation to help her meet her own responsibilities to her state and the office.”
Staff members in Ms. Feinstein’s office say they engage in frank conversations with her about her future and are not shielding her from reality. So far, she has insisted that she is able to work and has no plans to leave office before her term ends in 2025; she is not seeking re-election.
Her aides do not issue any statements without Ms. Feinstein’s sign-off, and describe her as strong-willed even in her diminished state.
Source: The New York Times
