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Former Staffer: California Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein Cares More About Her Dog Than Black People

Former Staffer: California Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein Cares More About Her Dog Than Black People

feinstein

Photo: Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Oct. 22, 2020, at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Fired Senate staffer Jamarcus Purley is speaking out about his stint as a legislative correspondent for Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and he doesn’t have too many kind words for his former boss.

Purley, a Black man with degrees from Harvard and Stanford universities who studied abroad at Oxford, claimed Feinstein cared more about her dogs than her Black constituents.

Purley first joined Feinstein’s office in 2017 in an entry-level job as a staff assistant. He told Latino Rebels that right away, he realized he would have to be accommodating to a white workplace if he wanted to survive as a Capitol Hill staffer. 

“The first time I met Sen. Feinstein, there were two Black dudes in the meeting, and she called me the other Black guy’s name,” said Purley, who studied English literature and African and African American studies at Stanford. “She called me his name. We look nothing alike. We are two different shades. He wears a beard.”

He recalled, “I didn’t correct it. I laughed it off because I didn’t even process it until later … after all I’ve done to get here, you’re gonna call me another guy’s name? But I was like, OK, we’re gonna work within the system to try and figure this s–t out. It’s amazing to me how many people don’t consider me Black. They consider me Jamarcus: that n—a that went to all them schools.”

According to Purley, things took an even worse turn in terms of representation of Black people and people of color in Feinsteins’s office when she hired David Grannis as chief of staff.

“The staff turnover got insane,” recalled Purley, “especially for Black and Brown staffers. The big conference room in our office became the place I hated most because it was there that I could literally see just how few Black people worked in our office.”

When his father died of covid in December 2020, Purley said he had an epiphany. He had been promoted from staff assistant to legislative correspondent, and his job was to read and write mail to constituents.

“Working as a legislative correspondent, that’s when it hit me just how little resources Black people in California have,” said Purley. “The senator wouldn’t allow us to help people directly. People on the Hill are scared of losing their jobs. What made me fearless was this moment: my father was dead. Other Black and Brown families were losing their loved ones as well and Feinstein didn’t give a f–k. ”

Purley recalled telling Feinstein’s director of constituent correspondence, Candace Hull, that “Black people are dying (of covid) because they don’t have access to the resources we can provide them. She said she’d check in with the senator.”

Purley said he later followed up with Hull, again stating,” ‘We need to help people so they don’t die like my father died… That’s when Candice said, ‘We have other priorities.’ I said, ‘You have the f–king gall to tell me we have other priorities?’ That’s when I gave a 10-to-15-minute speech about how the senator doesn’t care about Black people. Then when other staffers finally chimed in, they totally whitewashed my words. Finally, Candice told me I had 30 seconds to speak. I repeated that the senator cares more about Kirby, her f–kin’ dog, than Black people. I said, ‘You gotta be f–king kidding me. I’ve been working here five years; the Senator has never walked by my desk. That’s why every Black and Brown person is leaving this office.’”

Feinstein terminated Purley’s employment on Feb. 8 citing performance issues.

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Purley told MSNBC that he butted heads with Feinstein and her team on other occasions.

“Wherever we wanted to put something forward to the senator that wasn’t associated with San Francisco…She didn’t listen to it,” he said, adding that he tried in vain to bring up the homelessness issue in Los Angeles to no avail. 

This isn’t the first time Feinstein’s commitment to Black people has been called into question. 

In June 2019, when author Ta-Nehisi Coates testified on reparations for the descendants of slaves at a historic Juneteenth congressional hearing, Feinstein, the senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, replied that she understands why Coates and other thought leaders are calling for reparations but warned that the issue is divisive.

“I understand why. I also understand the wound that it opens and the trials and tribulations it’s going to bring about. Some things are just better left alone, and I think that’s one of those things,” Feinstein said, according to The Hill.

Photo: Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., speaks during a news conference after boycotting the vote by the Republican-led panel to advance the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to sit on the Supreme Court, Oct. 22, 2020, at the Capitol in Washington, as other Democratic committee members look on. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)