Feinstein slammed for saying no Covid-19 relief for states without mask mandate, critics revisit past scandals
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) faced intense backlash on social media Thursday after she called on the Senate to support an amendment to the next COVID-19 relief bill that would bar states from receiving stimulus funding if they do not implement mask mandates. Scores of users brought up the California Democrat's past controversies as they slammed her proposal, sparking #Feinstein on Twitter.
The senator announced in a statement her intention to introduce the amendment, saying it was time that Congress stepped in and forced non-compliant states to implement such mandates to curb the spread of the deadly contagion.
“Wearing masks in public should be mandatory. Period. [Senate Majority] Leader [Mitch] McConnell [R-Ky.] said the Senate will take up the next coronavirus economic relief bill later this month. At that time, I intend to offer an amendment to prohibit sending funds to states that haven’t adopted a statewide mask requirement," she said in the statement.
“My hope has been that other governors would show the leadership to institute their own mask mandates, but so far that hasn’t happened. It’s time for Congress to step in. This is a matter of life or death, and partisan politics shouldn’t play a role," Feinstein, a member of the Senate Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, added.
The former Mayor of San Francisco released the statement after some Republican governors including Georgia's Brian Kemp and South Dakota's Kristi Noem resisted implementing mandatory mask policies, with Kemp going so far as to punish or reprimand local officials who implement such mandates. Nonetheless, social media platforms like Twitter were inundated with criticisms against Feinstein.
"In today's episode of Reversal of Freedoms, CA Senator Dianne Feinstein wants to force states into mandatory masking by threatening to withhold federal coronavirus relief in the next round of funding. This is the height of overreach. We must #DrainTheBLUESwamp," California House candidate James P. Bradley tweeted.
"If you vote for Biden, you’ll be wearing masks for the next four years," Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham wrote.
"@GavinNewsom, @SpeakerPelosi and @SenFeinstein have completely lost their minds. Gavin is a crook who leaves his Winery open after closing other ones. Nancy is a drunk. Feinstein made suspicious stock trades right before the market crash. We must fire them," congressional candidate Omar Navarro tweeted.
"Feinstein dissed children for asking her to support the #GreenNewDeal. Her husband engaged in shady stock trades. Now, she wants to punish people who live in states without mask mandates. Feinstein needs to retire or be replaced in 2025. #ReplaceFeinstein," another user chimed in.
The longtime Democrat came under public scrutiny earlier this year due to stock transactions by her husband just before the market tanked due to the coronavirus. According to Senate records, Feinstein's husband Richard Blum sold shares of Allogene Therapeutics, a California biotechnology company, on January 31 and made at least $1 million in Allogene stock on February 18. The FBI subsequently initiated a probe to see whether Feinstein had used any information she learned in her capacity as a senator to guide her husband's decision to sell his stocks.
In March, Feinstein said she had "no input" in her husband's finances. "I have no input into his decisions. My husband in January and February sold shares of a cancer therapy company. This company is unrelated to any work on the coronavirus and the sale was unrelated to the situation," she said.
Feinstein also received pushback after she endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden for Democratic presidential nominee late last year. This allegedly was due to her alleged business ties with China as well as reports that she unwittingly employed a Chinese spy on her payroll for several years.
Hours before Feinstein's endorsement of Biden, the Chinese government announced it wouldn't investigate how Hunter Biden became a board member in one of its top private equity firms, Breitbart reported in October 2019.
During her tenure as mayor, Feinstein reportedly took advantage of the newly normalized diplomatic ties between the U.S. and China, establishing San Francisco as a sister city to Shanghai.
Blum profited from ties to China after Feinstein became a Senator in 1992, Breitbart said. Feinstein while on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee pushed for a number of initiatives perceived as being favorable to China, including awarding it the most-favored-nation trading status in 2000.
However, it must be noted that the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) targeted Feinstein as part of its espionage operations. Recruiting a longtime employee of the senator, the Chinese government was reportedly able to gather information "about the inner workings of her congressional and district offices." The staffer's duplicity would only be revealed in 2013, after he had already been on Feinstein's payroll for over two decades.
Politico reported in 2018 that "while this person, who was a liaison to the local Chinese community, was fired, charges were never filed against him.” The outlet speculated at the time that prosecution had become "far more difficult" because “the staffer was providing political intelligence and not classified information" to China.