Dianne Feinstein, who died Thursday night at the age of 90, was the longest-serving female U.S. senator in history. But even before her 30-year run in the Senate, Feinstein had already had a distinguished career in San Francisco politics, one that also spanned decades. And over the years, KQED Public Television was often there to capture it.
In the videos below, footage from the KQED 9 archives captures moments from Feinstein’s early years in San Francisco, beginning with her ascension to the city’s Board of Supervisors in 1969.
Over the last two decades, Feinstein also sat down with KQED for a number of televised interviews. Those exchanges serve as a snapshot of the quickly changing political environment in California and the United States — both for politicians and voters — during that period of time. In those conversations, Feinstein weighed in on everything from Obamacare and her fears about the “radical” nature of the Romney-Ryan presidential ticket, to the Brett Kavanaugh hearings and the election of Donald Trump.
1970: Feinstein sworn in as San Francisco Supervisor
In January 1970, Dianne Feinstein was sworn into the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and became its first female president. This footage shows Feinstein introducing her daughter, Katherine Anne and husband Bertram, welcoming Mayor Joseph Alioto to the Board and being formally sworn in. “Let’s adjourn with good thoughts for the 1970s,” Feinstein said at the meeting’s close.
Oct. 1978: Feinstein opens Pier 39 with Mayor Moscone
“Okay, don’t look into the camera.” In this rough KQED 9 footage from October 1978, which ranges from B-roll to interviews, a costumed Feinstein and Mayor George Moscone are seen cutting the giant ribbon to formally open the Pier 39 tourist attraction in San Francisco. The archival footage also includes scenes of brass bands performing, and workers and onlookers offering their opinions.
This video was taken less than two months before Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were assassinated by former supervisor Dan White inside San Francisco City Hall.
Nov. 27, 1978: Shockwaves from the assassination of Milk and Moscone
On Nov. 27, 1978, the day White murdered Milk and Moscone, storied journalist Belva Davis hosted the live show A Closer Look later that night on KQED 9.
At the 45:50 time mark, Davis introduces Acting Mayor Feinstein who joins the program by phone and — after initial technical difficulties — speaks about that day, including her attempts to reach White that morning owing to her fears of a brewing confrontation.
When asked if she has a message for the people of San Francisco, Feinstein said, “If ever there was a time to end the divisiveness that’s plagued this city, this is it.”
Nov. 27, 1978: Feinstein speaks at candlelight vigil at City Hall following the murders
Following the Nov. 27 murders of Moscone and Milk, mourners held a moving candlelight vigil from Castro Street to San Francisco City Hall. This KQED footage shows those gathered singing “Kumbaya,” and Feinstein being angrily heckled by some people in the crowd — who are then shushed by others — as she speaks outside City Hall (begins 1:21).
“San Francisco has lost two great leaders, and we question why,” she asked the crowd. “What is in a heart that can turn it to commit this kind of act?”
2010 interview: ‘Out of fear comes this kind of belligerence’
In this 2010 interview with KQED’s This Week in Northern California, Feinstein spoke to Scott Shafer about the “anger” she was seeing nationally around Obamacare.
She also spoke about why she didn’t believe comprehensive immigration reform in Congress was “dead,” and discussed UC Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu’s nomination for the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
2012 interview: ‘Democrats really see the handwriting on the wall’
In Sept. 2017, Belva Davis, of KQED’s This Week in Northern California, sat down with Feinstein during the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Feinstein spoke about the “radical agenda” of the Republican presidential campaign of Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan, and weighed in on former Gov. Pete Wilson calling California a “failed state.”
2017 interview: ‘He appears to be very impetuous’
In this KQED Newsroom interview, Feinstein said the election of President Donald Trump gave her “great pause.” Scott Shafer sat down with the veteran lawmaker in the nation’s Capitol — almost exactly four years before it would be attacked by Trump supporters in the Jan. 6 insurrection — to talk about her hopes for his first 100 days.
2018 interview: ‘What I want to do is be constructive and helpful to our nation’
As she appealed to voters to elect her to the Senate for a fifth term, Feinstein spoke to KQED Newsroom in Oct. 2018 about her high-profile role in the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court hearings — and what she would have done differently given the chance. She also discussed the murder of journalist and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul’s Saudi Arabian Consulate, and advocated for San Francisco’s Proposition C that aimed to address the city’s homeless issue by taxing big businesses.