Nikki Haley: Biden is unlikely to ‘make it’ to 86

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has slammed US President Joe Biden over his advanced age, saying he isn’t likely to make it until 86 years old, which would be his age by the end of his second term if he were to win reelection in 2024.

“I think we can all be very clear and say with a matter of fact that if you vote for Joe Biden, you really are counting on a President Harris because the idea that he would make until 86 years old is not something that I think is likely,” Haley said on Wednesday.

Biden already is the oldest president in US history. On Tuesday, he announced his 2024 reelection campaign setting the scene for a rematch against his Republican predecessor Donald Trump, who will be 77 next year.

He has faced questions about his age and whether he is up for a full campaign season and four more years in office.

Haley launched her presidential campaign in February and proposed a competency test for politicians over 75 years old.

The 51-year-old targeted both Joe Biden and Donald Trump, who are 80 and 76 years old, respectively.

Haley calls for US politicians over 75 to face 'mental competency tests'

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has called for mandatory “mental competency tests” for politicians older than 75.

“In America I see, the permanent politician will finally retire,” said Haley, who served as US ambassador to the United Nations under Trump’s presidency. “We’ll have term limits for Congress. And mandatory mental competency tests for politicians over 75 years old.”

Haley quoted instances suggesting Biden was not completely aware of everything going on in his administration, such as the fallout with France after his administration had pushed Paris aside last year and signed a lucrative multi-billion nuclear deal with Australia for submarines. France accused Biden of stabbing it in the back and acting like his predecessor Trump.

Haley told Fox News this week that Biden’s age is “why I’ve continued to say we need to have mental competency tests … starting at 75 just to make sure that these people deciding our national security, deciding our economy policy, deciding what happens to our kids in schools. It matters.”

“But really, are we willing to say we’re OK with a President Kamala Harris? Is that what we’re looking at? Because that’s the reason we’ve got a country to save,” she added.

Biden’s rival, Trump has claimed that Biden cannot pass a cognitive test. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment is aimed at detecting mild cognitive impairments such as dementia.

Biden's age makes his re-election bid a historic and risky gamble for the Democratic Party, which faces a tough election map to hold the Senate in 2024 and is the minority in the House of Representatives now.

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Joe Biden has referred to Cambodia as Colombia, furthering concerns that the aged politician is suffering from a cognitive disorder.

A previous poll conducted in December had found almost 60 percent of registered voters in the US expressing serious concerns about Biden’s mental fitness, citing frequent instances in which Biden had appeared to be completely disoriented in public.

“I think there’s a reason that he campaigned in his basement in the last election. He got a pass. This time, how much is he going to do?” Haley said.

Commenting on Haley’s remarks, American political analyst Don DeBar said, “If that's all she has on Biden then she might as well be 86 also, because she’s clearly got dementia.”

“Biden's at war with Russia - without any declaration of war and without any cause other than to further the coup d'etat that he and Obama and Hillary Clinton forced it upon Ukraine in 2014. The three of them ought to be back to back in front of the Hague and she should be calling for that instead of them harping at each other over his age and her IQ (which are pretty much equivalent),” he added.

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