Feinstein says she’ll retire at the end of term
WASHINGTON — Senator Dianne Feinstein of California announced Tuesday that she would not seek reelection in 2024 but would finish out her term in Congress, making official a retirement that was long assumed by her colleagues, who had grown concerned about her memory issues.
The move clears the way for what is expected to be a costly and competitive race for the seat she has held for three decades.
Feinstein, 89, a trailblazing Democratic power broker, has had acute short-term memory issues for years that have raised concerns among those who interact with her. Even as she has faced questions about her ability to represent the 40 million residents of California, Feinstein has refused to publicly acknowledge the problems.
She said in a statement that she planned to “accomplish as much for California as I can through the end of next year, when my term ends,” meaning Governor Gavin Newsom of California would not appoint a replacement to fill her seat.
The announcement was greeted with some poignancy and some relief by some of her Democratic colleagues and people close to her.
“She’s a legend, a legend in California as the first woman senator,” said Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader. He said he had never seen such a long standing ovation at a caucus lunch as Feinstein received Tuesday when she informed her colleagues of her decision. She gave a “heartwarming and tearful address,” he added.
Since her husband, financier and Democratic megadonor Richard Blum, died a year ago, Feinstein has been under immense strain, people close to her said.
Some California Democrats did not wait for Feinstein to announce her plans to start campaigning for her seat. Representative Katie Porter, who flipped a previously Republican district in Orange County in 2018 and has earned Democratic accolades for her sharp questioning of corporate executives in congressional hearings, was the first to announce her campaign last month. Representative Adam Schiff, a former leader of the House Intelligence Committee and the manager of then-president Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial, entered the race a couple of weeks later.
Representative Barbara Lee, a progressive stalwart from the Bay Area, is expected to announce her candidacy by the end of the month. Her colleague Ro Khanna is seen as another possible candidate.
The Republican field is less clear. In California, all candidates run on the same primary ballot regardless of party, and the top two advance to the general election, so two Democrats could face each other in November 2024.
Over a half-century career in politics, Feinstein rose from a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to the heights of Democratic power. As a senator, she helped create Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California, wrote the 1994 assault weapons ban, and, as the detail-oriented, hardcharging chair of the Intelligence Committee, produced the 6,700-page torture report on the excesses of the war on terrorism.
Biden selects advisers on the economy
WASHINGTON — President Biden on Tuesday named Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard as the new director of his National Economic Council, making the Ph.D. economist a key point person for coordinating policy, talking with business leaders, and negotiating with Congress.
Biden also nominated longtime adviser Jared Bernstein to be chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Brainard and Bernstein would be moving into top spots at a crucial juncture for the economy. Unemployment is at 3.4 percent, near a 54-year low, but inflation remains persistently high at 6.4 percent and has contributed to fears of a recession.
Brainard will succeed Brian Deese, who helped handle several key legislative wins for Biden, including coronavirus relief, infrastructure spending, and investments in computer chip production.
Brainard, 61, holds a doctoral degree in economics from Harvard University. She taught at MIT for six years before joining the Clinton administration, where she worked as a deputy director for the National Economic Council. She was also undersecretary for international affairs at Treasury during Barack Obama’s presidency. Brainard joined the Fed in 2014 as a governor and Biden nominated her to become vice chair.
Bernstein, 67, is already a member of the Council of Economic Advisers, where he would succeed current chair Cecilia Rouse, who is returning to Princeton University. With an interest in labor markets and income inequality, Bernstein worked as a vice presidential aide for Biden during Obama’s presidency.
Bernstein must be confirmed by the Senate. Brainard does not need to be confirmed.
Wisconsin Democrats pushing far-right candidate
Last year, Democrats spent millions of dollars elevating farright candidates in Republican primary contests for governor and Congress — betting, it turned out correctly, that more extreme opponents would lose general elections.
Now Wisconsin Democrats are trying to do it again, this time with mail and TV ads before a Republican primary in a special election for a state Senate seat that carries ramifications far beyond the district in suburban Milwaukee.
The Democrats are helping a far-right election denier who has become a pariah within her party in her race against a less extreme, but still election-denying, conservative. They hope that with a more vulnerable opponent, Democrats can win a seat held for decades by Republicans and deny the GOP a vetoproof majority in the gerrymandered chamber.
“Janel Brandtjen is as conservative as they come,” reads a postcard sent to Republican voters from the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.
The Feb. 21 primary, and the April 4 general election to follow, will serve as the latest test of how much appetite Republican voters have for the flavor of election denialism that fueled the party’s grass roots after former president Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss.
Court lets defamation suit against Fox News continue
NEW YORK — A New York appeals court on Tuesday rejected Fox News’ bid to shut down a multibillion-dollar defamation lawsuit accusing the network of spreading lies that a voting-technology company helped “steal” the 2020 election from then-president Donald Trump.
A five-judge panel ruled unanimously against the network, host Maria Bartiromo, and former host Lou Dobbs. They said they were simply reporting the news when they broadcast unsupported claims from Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell about Smartmatic USA. The claims were false.
The state Supreme Court’s Appellate Division, a mid-level appeals court, said there were “significant allegations” that Giuliani and Powell defamed the company.