Hillary Clinton is the latest high profile Democrat to come to Senator Dianne Feinstein’s defense, saying she should not resign despite her health challenges. Meanwhile, some members of the House, in particular, continue to call for Feinstein to step down, especially after her return to Washington demonstrated just how frail she’s become.

The 89 year-old Feinstein is recovering, slowly, from shingles, which brought on a form of encephalitis and another disorder that caused some facial paralysis and hearing loss. She insists she can still do the job Californians elected her to do, and is determined to serve out the rest of her final term, while three prominent Congressional Democrats run to succeed her. Governor Newsom has promised to appoint a Black woman to finish Feinstein’s term if she is unable to, and now there’s speculation that Oprah Winfrey could be on his short list of possible caretaker Senators if it comes to that.

But Feinstein says that won’t be necessary, because she isn’t going anywhere until the end of 2024.

For more on this, KCBS political reporter Doug Sovern, along with KCBS Radio's Megan Goldsby and Bret Burkhart spoke with Jerry Roberts, longtime City Hall reporter in San Francisco. He covered Feinstein when she was a Supervisor and then Mayor. Jerry went on to be Managing Editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, co-founded the political website CalBuzz and these days, he runs Newsmakers with Jerry Roberts, covering politics in Santa Barbara. But most importantly for our discussion, he wrote the definitive biography of Dianne Feinstein, “Never Let Them See You Cry,” which was published in 1994.