Sen. Dianne Feinstein briefly hospitalized after falling at home

WASHINGTON — Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California was briefly hospitalized Tuesday after a fall at home, her office told multiple news outlets. 

"Senator Feinstein briefly went to the hospital yesterday afternoon as a precaution after a minor fall in her home. All of her scans were clear and she returned home," her office said in a statement to outlets including ABC, CBS and CNN. 

TMZ was the first to report Feinstein's hospitalization, saying the senator had tripped and fallen at her San Francisco home.

At 90, Feinstein is the oldest member of Congress. She was absent from the Senate for two and a half months this year as she contended with shingles and other complications, including a brief bout of encephalitis, and has at times appeared confused or disoriented when speaking to reporters.

Feinstein has gradually stepped back from several senior positions in recent years. In 2020, she said she would not serve as the top Democrat on the judiciary panel after criticism from liberals about her handling of Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation. Earlier this year, she said she would not serve as the Senate president pro tempore, or the most senior member of the majority party, even though she was in line to do so. The president pro tempore opens the Senate every day and holds other ceremonial duties.

The long-serving California senator has had a trailblazing political career and shattered gender barriers. She was the first woman to serve as president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in the 1970s and the first female mayor of San Francisco. She ascended to that post after the November 1978 assassinations of then-Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk by a former supervisor, Dan White. Feinstein found Milk’s body.

In the Senate, she was the first woman to head the Senate Intelligence Committee and the first woman to serve as the Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat.