Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said that she believes that once politicians become 75 years old, they should be forced to take a mental competency test.
The former governor of South Carolina made those comments during an appearance on the “Face The Nation” program on CBS News on Sunday. The 51-year-old said these tests were necessary to ensure that politicians remain fit to serve the American public.
As Haley said:
“We need to have mental competency tests for anyone over the age of 75. And I don’t say that to be disrespectful. I don’t care if you do it for 50 and older. What I’m saying is, these are people in D.C. that are making decisions on our national security.
“They’re deciding the future of our kids’ economy. We need to know they’re at the top of their game. When you go and look at [President Joe] Biden and you ask him what country he was in the week before, and he can’t say it. When you go and ask him how many grandchildren he has and he doesn’t know. When you go and see him falling asleep with leaders … that’s concerning.”
The issue of mental competency for older politicians has been a hot topic in the news recently. Biden’s mental competency has been consistently questioned as he stumbles over his words and has fallen at times as well. He is 80 years old.
Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein from California, who is 90 years old, had to take a months-long absence from Congress due to health concerns, holding up many judicial nominees in the process. When she did return, she experienced some mental lapses.
Just recently, she seem disoriented and had to be reminded to vote during a session of the Senate.
Even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell from Kentucky, who is 81 years old, suffered a mental lapse recently. While answering questions from the media, he all of a sudden paused for 30 seconds and had to be asked by some of his staff members whether he had anything to add – before he was whisked away from the press.
These are just a few of the politicians who are running Washington, too, and they’re in very prominent political positions.
As such, Haley said that the U.S. needs a “new generational leader” as its president, and that it was long overdue “for us to have a new generation” of political leaders in all areas.
She said:
“Republicans have lost the last seven out of eight popular votes for president. That’s nothing to be proud of. We should want to win the majority of Americans. We’ve got to start going with a new generation so that we can do that.
“We have to leave all of these older diplomats and Democrats and Republicans behind. And let’s start dealing with new solutions that the American people can feel like governments working for them again.”
