Nikki Haley calls for competency test for politicians

Indian American Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has renewed her call for a competency test for politicians saying voters deserve to know whether their leaders making major decisions about war and peace can pass a very basic mental exam.

“What’s incredible is how the Washington establishment continues to cover for those who likely lack the mental acuity to do their job,” she wrote in an op-ed on Monday for Fox News.

“America needs a new generation of leaders to renew our national strength and pride,” wrote Haley the first Indian American to serve in a presidential cabinet as the US ambassador to UN under then President Donald Trump.

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“It’s why I support term limits for members of Congress, and why I’ve called for mental competency tests for politicians over the age of 75,” she wrote. “To most Americans, this is common sense. But many political and media elites scoff at these ideas.”

“When I first called for competency tests, recently fired CNN host Don Lemon said I was the one ‘past my prime.’ Why? Because, in his mind, that describes all women over 50,” Haley recalled.

“He was widely and deservedly criticized for his backward views,” she wrote. “But what’s incredible is how the Washington establishment continues to cover for those who likely lack the mental acuity to do their job.”

Haley referred to Feinstein, 89, as a “trailblazer who’s made an indelible mark in public service,” but went on to write “it’s been obvious for quite some time that she’s in significant mental and physical decline.”

“She’s missed months of votes and clearly can no longer do her job. I agree with several congressional Democrats who say Feinstein should resign immediately and let someone else who is able to do the job take over,” Haley continued.

“At 89 years old, she is a prime example of why we need mental competency tests for politicians.”

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The former South Carolina governor also dismissed criticism that calls for Feinstein to resign were sexist, pointing to President Joe Biden, who at 80 years-old launched his reelection bid last week.

“If he wins next November, he will be 82 years old when he takes the oath of office, and 86 at the end of a second term. That would surpass the oldest president in American history by nine years,” Haley noted.

“That’s not a problem in itself, but millions of Americans watch President Biden and believe he exhibits cognitive decline. He rarely takes press questions,” she wrote.

“He spends most weekends at his vacation home in Delaware. Sadly, he often seems disoriented and confused,” Haley wrote. “Yet the public can’t know for sure without a cognitive test, which Biden has either not taken or declines to publish as part of his medical records.

“This uncertainly about Biden’s mental competence means Americans must consider the actual competency of the vice president,” she wrote.

Describing fellow Indian American Kamala Harris as “one of the most incompetent elected officials in the country,” Haley suggested, “Her failures in foreign policy and managing the border are too numerous to mention – to say nothing of the word salad that defines her unscripted remarks.”

“I wish Joe Biden the best of health, but it’s only sensible to consider the reality of an already slipping president serving through his mid-80s,” she wrote.

“If Biden is re-elected, Harris would have the highest likelihood of becoming president in the middle of a term of any vice president ever,” Haley wrote.

“The question before voters in 2024 is, to an unprecedented degree, whether they want Kamala Harris to be president, not vice president.”

Haley proposed for Feinstein, Biden and others the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test, a widely used tool for detecting cognitive decline, which “involves rather simple things like naming animals, memorizing and recalling a few words, and listing words that begin with the same letter.”

“They should both take the test, along with every other politician over the age of 75 – Republican or Democrat, man or woman – and publish the results,” she wrote without naming Trump, 76, her former boss turned rival.

“This is not a qualification for office. Failing a mental competency test would not result in removal. It is about transparency,” Haley wrote.

“Voters deserve to know whether those who are making major decisions about war and peace, taxation and budgets, schools and safety, can pass a very basic mental exam,” she wrote.

Career politicians and elites oppose competency tests not because they are aimed at women like Sen. Feinstein, as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggests, she wrote.

“They dislike them because they don’t want to hold the present leadership of our country accountable,” Haley wrote. “They don’t want a new generation to turn our country around. But that’s what the American people deserve.”