Dianne Feinstein says she won't step down early despite concerning mental health reports

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Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., will serve out the remainder of her term despite worrying reports about her mental fitness, she told reporters this week.

Feinstein, 89, has spent roughly 30 years in the Senate, and critics have recently raised questions about her mental health, citing a reportedly failing memory, among other things. Nevertheless, both she and her office said she intends to serve out the rest of her term, which ends in 2024.

"Yes, absolutely," she told the Los Angeles Times when asked whether she plans to stay on. "There’s still two years, you know. A lot can happen in two years."

Feinstein went on to say that she would come to a decision about whether to run for reelection in 2024 "probably by spring," according to the Times.

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Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., speaks during a news conference. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., right, greets Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson at the Capitol, March 16, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Feinstein's office confirmed her plans to stay on through the rest of her term in a statement to Fox News Digital.

"The senator has no plans to step down and will announce her plans for 2024 at the appropriate time," a spokesperson said.

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Fox sought a response to questions about Feinstein's mental fitness but did not receive one.

Concerns about Feinstein's fitness for office have simmered in recent years, but the issue exploded into the mainstream earlier this year with a report from the San Francisco Chronicle. The report detailed concerns from Feinstein's fellow Democrats that her memory and ability to converse coherently were fading.

"I have worked with her for a long time and long enough to know what she was like just a few years ago: always in command, always in charge, on top of the details, basically couldn’t resist a conversation where she was driving some bill or some idea. All of that is gone," an anonymous lawmaker told the Chronicle.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., will serve out the remainder of her term despite worrying reports about her mental fitness, she told reporters this week. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images/File)

"She was an intellectual and political force not that long ago, and that’s why my encounter with her was so jarring. Because there was just no trace of that," the lawmaker continued.

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"It’s bad, and it’s getting worse," another lawmaker, a Democratic senator, reportedly told the Chronicle.