President Joe Biden, the oldest person sworn in as the country's chief executive, has confidence in Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., despite recent reports about the senator's declining mental health, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday.
The San Francisco Chronicle last week reported that four U.S. senators, including three Democrats, as well as former Feinstein staffers and a California Democrat member of Congress said that the 88-year-old senator's memory had been deteriorating rapidly.
The sources told the Chronicle it appeared Feinstein no longer can fulfill her job duties without staffers doing much of the work.
During Monday's White House press briefing, Psaki was asked whether Biden, 79, still had confidence in Feinstein.
"Yes, she's a longtime friend, a proud public servant, and someone he has long enjoyed serving with and working with," Psaki said.
When a reporter followed up by asking whether the president had reached out to Feinstein following the Chronicle's report, Psaki said: "I don't have any updates on private conversations."
Feinstein, who was elected to the Senate in 1992, will see her term end in 2024. She previously served as San Francisco mayor 1978-88.
The Chronicle reported that Feinstein sometimes did not seem to recognize longtime colleagues.
"It's bad, and it's getting worse," one Democrat senator told the newspaper.
"There's a joke on the Hill, we've got a great junior senator in Alex Padilla and an experienced staff in Feinstein's office," one staffer for a California Democrat told the Chronicle.
Feinstein on Friday released a statement pushing back on the Chronicle's report stating that four of her Senate colleagues had expressed concerns about her mental fitness.
"The real question is whether I'm still an effective representative for 40 million Californians, and the record shows that I am," Feinstein's statement read.
Biden also has faced accusations of mental decline. Nearly 40 Republican lawmakers have called on the president to take a cognitive test as his "mental decline and forgetfulness" have become more apparent over the past two years.
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