No retirement talk from Feinstein, oldest U.S. senator

LOS ANGELES (AP) – The nation’s oldest U.S. senator looks like she’s sticking around.

California’s Dianne Feinstein turns 84 on Thursday and is displaying signs that she’s headed for a re-election campaign, not a retirement party.

While the Democrat has been coy when asked about seeking a fifth full term next year, her political committee, unambiguously titled Feinstein for Senate 2018, raised more than $650,000 in the first three months of this year in a cue she is looking ahead.

Feinstein plays a marquee role for Democrats on Capitol Hill, where she has queried Attorney General Jeff Sessions and former FBI Director James Comey about their interactions with President Donald Trump, amid probes tied to Russian influence and the 2016 presidential campaign.

On Friday, she warned that Trump might attempt to fire Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating possible obstruction of justice. “The message the president is sending through his tweets is that he believes the rule of law doesn’t apply to him,” she said.

She’s the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, which is investigating the circumstances behind Trump’s dismissal of Comey. She also sits on the Intelligence Committee, which is conducting an inquiry into Russia’s election meddling and whether there was any collusion between Russia and Trump’s campaign.

With another term in Washington, Feinstein could be in the Senate into her 90s.

Questions about her age circulated in 2012, when at 78 she was easily re-elected over token Republican opposition. She had a pacemaker installed in January, and a voter survey earlier this year suggested her support could be dinged by her advancing years.

But even in youthobsessed California, where about four in 10 people are under 30, Feinstein’s age didn’t concern Los Angeles screenwriter Marie Stone, providing the senator remains in good health. Stone said she likes the balance between Feinstein’s long experience and the babyboom pedigree of Sen. Kamala Harris, the state’s junior senator who is a comparatively youthful 52.