A new book out features the tale of a former staffer for Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) who snuck into her office after-hours and recorded himself smoking a blunt at the 89-year-old Democrat’s desk.
The stunt took place in February 2022 after the staffer had been fired — Jamarcus Purley still had his congressional employee badge, according to The Washington Post’s Ben Terris, author of “The Big Break: The Gamblers, Party Animals, and True Believers Trying to Win in Washington While America Loses its Mind.” Purley was reportedly fired for not showing up to work and communicating with constituents without a manager’s approval,
Purley was allegedly rebelling over how he was treated while working in the office and claimed on an earlier phone call with other members of the office that Feinstein cared “more about her dog, Kirby, than she does about Black people,” according to Terris.
In the video, Purley is seen leaning back in Feinstein’s chair while an R&B song from DeBarge played in the background. Already feeling the effects of mushrooms, he puffs on the blunt as he begins grooving to the music. At one point, he crouched up into the seat of the chair and mugged for the camera.
“I thought of my family. I looked at my sister — she’s my screensaver on my phone. She puts up with so much s–t as a Black woman. I knew no one would ever know the s–t Feinstein does to Black people if I didn’t make it impossible to ignore,” he said of the incident, according to the Dear White House Staffers’ Instagram page, which shared the video:
View this post on Instagram
In the former staffer’s eyes, his coworkers were racist and the senator was not all there cognitively.
“It was obvious to him that her mental faculties were dimming and she might be going senile,” Terris wrote. “Purley also thought the Senate office should be focusing more on constituent services — casework like tracking misdirected benefit payments or providing help filling out federal forms. During a pandemic, this was the kind of work that Purley felt could save lives — especially lives in hard‐up communities of color.”
“Things had come to a head two weeks earlier. On a phone call with other members of the office, Purley had let loose, airing concerns for what felt like 10 minutes,” he continued. “He talked about the coworkers who had touched his hair while he sat at his desk, how the senator hadn’t ever learned his name or spoken to him despite five years of service to her, how the chief of staff seemed to be operating as a shadow senator since the actual one was, in his opinion, no longer mentally there.”
As for how clueless the nearly 90-year-old senator may be, this is the same woman who allowed a Chinese spy to remain by her side for nearly 20 years.
Feinstein’s Bay Area office was infiltrated by a Chinese spy who reported back to Beijing about goings on. Serving as the Democrat’s driver and gofer, the spy was so trusted by Feinstein that he was used as a liaison to the Asian-American community, attending Chinese consulate functions for the senator.
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Tom Tillison grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills. Tillison also contributes to BizPac Review.
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.