Former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley believes that once elected officials reach a “certain age,” they should be required to take a cognitive test so that Americans can have “faith” in what they are doing.
During an interview on the Christian Broadcasting Networking, Haley was asked if she has concerns about President Joe Biden’s mental health.
“Well, what I’ll tell you is rather than making this about a person, we seriously need to have a conversation that if you’re going to have anyone above a certain age in a position of power — whether it’s the House, whether it’s the Senate, whether it’s vice president, whether it’s president — you should have some sort of cognitive test,” Haley said.
She added, “Just like you have to show your tax returns, you should have some sort of health screening so that people have faith in what you’re doing.”
She went on to note that “we’ve got a lot of people in leadership positions that are old.” The average age of House members is 58.4 years, and it is 64.3 years for senators.
“That’s not being disrespectful. That’s a fact. And when it comes to that, this shouldn’t be partisan. We should seriously be looking at the ages of the people that are running our country and understand if that’s what we want,” Haley added.
Watch the video below:
NEW! @NikkiHaley tells me Joe Biden's mental state, "makes everyone nervous." She calls for mental health screening of all older politicians. "Let's face it: we've got a lot of people in leadership positions that are old. And that's not being disrespectful. That's a fact." pic.twitter.com/efDl0oQxTI
— David Brody (@DBrodyReports) November 4, 2021
The Washington Post noted in June, that there are 23 senators in their 70s and just one under the age of 40. Additionally, Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), James Inhofe (R-Okla.), and Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) are in their 80s.
Grassley and Feinstein turned 88 this year.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) are both in their 80s.
Former President Donald Trump made history as the oldest president to take office when he was inaugurated in 2017 at the age of 70. However, Biden set the new record when he was inaugurated at age 78.
Haley returned to Biden’s mental state and suggested, “I think there’s a concern when people say, ‘Who’s really making the decisions here?’ That’s his job to prove that he’s making the decisions. But it’s not helping us when France wasn’t included in the idea that we were going to do this deal with the U.K. and Australia.”
On Oct. 29, Biden called the handling of a submarine deal with Australia that led to a diplomatic rift with France “clumsy.” He added, “It was not done with a lot of grace. I was under the impression certain things had happened that hadn’t happened.”
Finally, Haley claimed, “He can’t act like he doesn’t know something because each time he acts like he doesn’t know something… he keeps giving signals that he’s not with it.”
