Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley recently suggested that Donald Trump may not have the mental capacity to serve as President of the United States following a recent gaffe in which he confused Haley with former speaker Nancy Pelosi, CNN reported.
During a campaign rally in New Hampshire on the Friday before the New Hampshire primary, Trump was attacking the investigation conducted by the House Select Committee on the January 6 riot at the Capitol.
The former president blasted the committee for deleting and destroying all of the evidence it obtained during the probe and argued that many unanswered questions remained, particularly about the lack of security at the Capitol.
As Trump raged about the lack of security, he repeatedly blamed the problem on “Nikki Haley” whom he claimed was “in charge of security” at the US Capitol. It was obvious that Trump was referring to Nancy Pelosi, who as speaker, had a role in Capitol security. But each time, instead of saying Pelosi, Trump repeatedly said “Nikki Haley.”
The following day, while speaking to voters in Keene, New Hampshire, Haley brought up Trump’s gaffe, saying the reason she didn’t take security precautions on January 6, was because she was not in the Capitol on that day and was not serving in Congress.
Haley noted that people had suggested that the former president had confused her with the former speaker and suggested that given the “pressures of the presidency,” the country could not afford to have a president whose mental fitness was questioned.
A video clip of Trump’s Haley-Pelosi gaffe went viral on Twitter, with many expressing concern over the former president making the same kinds of gaffes as President Biden.
Trump tried to downplay the gaffe at a campaign event in Manchester on January 20, telling his supporters that he had a cognitive test “a few months ago and “aced it.”
Trump assured the group his mental fitness was stronger now than it had been 25 years ago and if he did start to lose it, he would “be able to tell you.”
He said if he did “go back,” he would “be able to tell you.”
The gaffe was seized on by the Biden campaign which is eager for anything that would diffuse concerns over the president’s advancing age. President Biden even highlighted Trump’s Haley-Pelosi gaffe in speeches in recent days.
