On CBS’s Face The Nation, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said that we are seeing signs of Trump’s mental decline.
Transcript via Face The Nation:
MARGARET BRENNAN: It’s unclear what he’s talking about as being deleted. But you said yesterday, hearing this made you question Donald Trump’s mental fitness. Is that the first time you questioned his mental fitness?
NIKKI HALEY: If you look, recently, there have been multiple things. I mean, he’s claimed that Joe Biden was going to get us into World War II. I’m assuming he met World War three. He said that he ran against President Obama. He never ran against President Obama. He says that I’m the one that kept security from Jan- from the Capitol on January 6. I was nowhere near the Capitol on January 6. But Margaret, you don’t be surprised if you have someone that’s 80 in office, their mental stability is going to continue to decline. That’s just human nature. We know that. What I’m saying is, first of all, you’re talking about somebody who’s only going to be in office four years. Secondly, you’re talking about someone who continues to- I mean, look, I don’t know if he was confused. I don’t know what happened. But it should be enough to send us a warning sign that if you look, Joe Biden, he’s very different than he was two years ago. Are we really going to go into a situation where we have wars around the world, and we’re trying to prevent war, and we’re going to have someone who we can or can’t be sure that they’re going to get confused?
It’s a real issue. That’s not being disrespectful. It’s just a fact.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Why do you think Trump’s voters care about that? And when you worked in his Cabinet, did you ever question his mental fitness?
NIKKI HALEY: When I worked in his Cabinet, I called him out if he was doing something wrong, I mean, I would show up, I pick up the phone and say “you can’t do this. Instead, you could do X, Y, or Z,” you know, so I always told him what I thought was in the best interest of the country when I was in his Cabinet. But this is different. I mean, we’re seeing he’s just not at the same level he was at 2016. I think we’re seeing some of that decline. But more than that, what I’ll say is, focus on the fact that no matter what it is, chaos follows him. Rightly or wrongly, chaos follows him–
Video:
It is probably too late for Haley in the Republican presidential primary. A new CNN poll of New Hampshire showed Trump leading her 50%-39%, but the fact that Haley is injecting Trump’s mental abilities into the presidential campaign is important.
Trump is clearly in some sort of decline. His ‘confusion’ as his campaign labels it, is getting more frequent. The media will usually give candidates a break if they misspeak once on the campaign trail, but as CBS’s Margaret Brennan pointed out, Trump confused Nancy Pelosi and Nikki Haley four times in the same remarks.
Even Saturday Night Live mentioned Trump’s cognitive issues.
Trump’s declining mind is going to be an issue in the 2024 campaign, and that is bad news for Republicans.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
