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He should have no problem standing on a debate stage: Nikki Haley questions Donald Trump’s ‘mental competency’
Nikki Haley said: “...he should have no problem standing on a debate stage with me."
A Trump-Biden rematch in 2024 appears almost inevitable right now even though Trump hasn’t debated any of the other Republicans who challenged him for the party’s nomination. While Haley lost to Trump in New Hampshire, she said she wasn’t out of the race and challenged Trump to a debate.
Nikki Haley said: “The other day Donald Trump accused me of not providing security at the Capitol on January 6th. Now, I've longed called for mental competency tests for politicians over the age of 75...he should have no problem standing on a debate stage with me.”
Haley, 52, has also gone after Trump's age - he is 77 - and mental acuity, attacks she has also regularly leveled at Biden, who is 81.
She took up the theme again on Tuesday, saying the country needs to put someone in the White House that can put in eight years to get it back on track.
"Do you want two 80-year-olds running for president?" Haley asked.
Donald Trump won New Hampshire's Republican presidential primary election on Tuesday, Edison Research projected, moving closer to a likely November rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden even as his only remaining rival, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, vowed to soldier on.
"This race is far from over," she told her supporters at a primary night party in Concord, challenging Trump to debate her. "I'm a fighter. And I'm scrappy. And now we're the last one standing next to Donald Trump."
With 25% of the expected vote tallied, according to Edison, Trump had 55.0% compared with 43.5% for Haley, who had hoped the Northeastern state's sizable cadre of independent voters would carry her to an upset win that might loosen Trump's iron grip on the Republican Party.
Instead, Trump will become the first Republican to sweep competitive votes in both Iowa - where he won by a record-setting margin eight days ago - and New Hampshire since 1976, when the two states cemented their status as the first nominating contests.
While the final margin was still unclear, the results will likely increase calls from some Republicans for Haley to drop out of the race, though her campaign vowed in a memo on Tuesday to push forward until "Super Tuesday" in early March, when Republicans in 15 states and one territory vote on the same day.
Trump took to the Truth Social app to let loose against Haley. “DELUSIONAL!!!” he posted. A minute later, he added, in reference to Iowa: “SHE CAME IN THIRD LAST WEEK!”
The next competitive contest is scheduled for Feb. 24 in South Carolina, where Haley was born and served two terms as governor. Despite her ties, however, Trump has racked up endorsements from most of the state's Republican figures, and opinion polls show him with a wide lead.
Haley finished third in Iowa, just behind Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, while focusing much of her early campaign on New Hampshire, where the more moderate electorate was expected to offer perhaps her best chance of winning a state over Trump.
With inputs from agencies
