Top Democrats pay tribute to Dianne Feinstein at funeral

The United States' most powerful Democrats have gathered for the funeral of Dianne Feinstein, who was the Senate's longest-serving female lawmaker before her death at age 90 last week.

Vice President Kamala Harris, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and California Governor Gavin Newsom attended the service at San Francisco's City Hall.

President Joe Biden pre-recorded a message that played during the service.

"She was always tough, prepared, rigorous, and compassionate," said Mr Biden. "God bless a great American hero. She was something else."

It was a sentiment his vice president echoed during her eulogy on Thursday. Both Ms Harris and Mr Biden had once served in the US Senate alongside Ms Feinstein.

Ms Harris recalled that Ms Feinstein welcomed her to the US Senate in 2017 with "a glass of California chardonnay" and "a binder full of her draft bills".

"Simply put, she was a force," Ms Harris said.

City Hall was a fitting venue for Ms Feinstein's service, as she served as mayor there for a decade before embarking on a historic Senate career. In the days leading up to the service, she laid in state within the building, her coffin draped with an American flag.

"Senator Feinstein, that is her official title… but to us, to San Franciscans, she was Mayor Dianne Feinstein," said London Breed, who is currently the only other woman to hold the position in the city's history.

The service was punctuated by repeated flyovers from the Blue Angels squadron and a prayer from local Jewish leaders in a nod to Ms Feinstein's heritage.

The San Francisco Girl's Chorus, clad in black, sang "The Impossible Dream" from the musical "The Man of La Mancha," a song about continuing to persevere in the service of an insurmountable goal.

The gathering was also reminder of the outsized significance San Francisco gained in national politics under Ms Feinstein's tenure.

Ms Pelosi was the senator's contemporary and forged a similarly trailblazing career in the US House, while Ms Harris and Mr Newsom came up in the generation of Bay Area Democratic politicians who saw Ms Feinstein as a mentor and leader.

Ms Feinstein forged a decades-long career first in California, and then on a national scale. She was elected to the US Senate in 1992, where she and her female colleagues worked to change the culture of the male-dominated institution.

In her three decades as senator, she championed gun safety legislation and battled the US intelligence apparatus over its use of torture.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called her "one of the Senate's great deal makers".

But as she began to publicly struggle with her health in old age, she faced calls from within her own party to resign and sparked a national conversation over America's aging political leaders. Voter satisfaction with Ms Feinstein plummeted during her final term.

On Thursday, Ms Feinstein's colleagues focused on the greater impact of her six-decade career.

"Millions of girls my age and long after me have grown blissfully free of the yokes our grandmothers wore because Dianne Feinstein wrestled them off," Ms Breed said. "She showed the way."