Clinton remembers Feinstein: ‘We could have used Dianne’s voice in the fights ahead’

Former Secretary of State and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton (D) on Monday penned a tribute to her late colleague, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), describing her as a champion of democracy who was “brave, honorable, honest and unafraid to do what was right for her constituents and her country.” 

In an opinion piece in The Washington Post, Clinton recalled arriving in Washington as first lady in 1993, when Feinstein first arrived to the Senate. Clinton said when she heard Feinstein use her first floor speech to advocate for the Family and Medical Leave Act, “I knew I had found a kindred spirit.”

“When I joined Dianne in the small sisterhood of Senate women eight years later, I gained an appreciation for her blend of principle and pragmatism. In an institution known for show horses, she was a workhorse. Perhaps because she had been a mayor, she believed in delivering results not rhetoric — and that’s what she did,” Clinton wrote. 

In the piece, she reflected on some of Feinstein’s most memorable and consequential moments as a public figure, like her role in passing the assault weapons ban in the 1990s, her advocacy for LGBTQ rights and people who had HIV and AIDS, and her role as Senate Intelligence chairwoman in exposing CIA torture practices after 9/11.

Clinton also recalled Feinstein’s role in facilitating her peacemaking with former President Obama after losing the 2008 primary. Feinstein hosted Obama and Clinton for a secret meeting at her home.  

“For all of us who loved Dianne, her passing is a deep personal loss. It is also a loss for our country when we are in desperate need of leaders willing to show half the backbone she displayed throughout her storied career,” Clinton wrote.

Clinton tied in Feinstein’s embrace of democratic institutions to the rising threats of political violence. She referenced former President Trump’s recent comments about former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley, who Trump said committed “a treasonous act” that would at one point be punishable by death. 

“We could have used Dianne’s voice in the fights ahead. Democracy needs champions. So do our institutions, creaky and frustrating as they might be. The United States needs leaders willing to respond to attacks on the rule of law with the same fearlessness that Dianne showed when she exposed unlawful ‘enhanced interrogation techniques,’” she wrote.

Clinton continued her attack on Trump.

“Trump and his supporters have also suggested that if he regains the presidency, he will seek to gut checks on executive power, weaponize the Justice Department to pursue political opponents, eviscerate the civil service and attempt to put himself above the law,” she said. “This is a man who has been indicted on a charge of a conspiracy to overturn an election and called for the ‘termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.’”