Nikki Haley warns Donald Trump to prepare for younger rival, renews call for cognitive tests

The former Republican presidential contender said Democrats should move on from President Biden after his halting debate performance.

Former US President Donald Trump (L) and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley.

Nikki Haley, the runner-up to Donald Trump in this year’s GOP nomination race, said Democrats need to dump President Biden as their presumptive nominee following his halting debate performance as she reiterated her calls for cognitive testing of all federal candidates.

But the former South Carolina governor, in a Wall Street Journal interview, said Republicans shouldn’t assume replacing Biden would inherently help Trump.

“They are going to be smart about it: they’re going to bring somebody younger, they’re going to bring somebody vibrant, they’re going to bring somebody tested,” she said. “This is a time for Republicans to prepare and get ready for what’s to come because there is no way that there will be a surviving Democratic Party if they allow Joe Biden to continue to be the candidate.” Haley also said she spoke about a week ago with Trump -- the former president and presumptive Republican nominee -- for the first time since she left the race in early March.

The two had a highly combative relationship during the first two months of the year, but Haley said she reached out to Trump to personally offer her support after stating during a public appearance in late May that she would vote for him.

One time US Republican Presidential hopeful and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley.

She described it as a “good conversation,” but said there was no discussion of a campaign role for her or participation in next month’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. It was the first time the two had spoken since she dropped out of the race. She had urged Trump to be more welcoming to the millions of people who voted for her.

Haley, who served as Trump’s first United Nations ambassador, said Biden’s presence in the White House presents risk for the nation following his debate appearance because his performance projected weakness. “Our enemies just saw that they have between now and Jan. 20 to do whatever it is they want to do,” she said in a reference to next year’s Inauguration Day.

Biden’s campaign didn’t directly respond to Haley’s comments, but issued a statement seeking to embrace her supporters.

“To the millions of Nikki Haley supporters who are tired of Donald Trump and his MAGA allies constantly attacking them, running moderates and independents out of the party, and repeatedly refusing to commit to accepting the 2024 election results, you have a home in President Biden’s coalition,” said a campaign spokesman, Ammar Moussa.

When Haley announced her presidential bid in February 2023, she called for congressional term limits and “mandatory mental competency tests for politicians over 75 years old.” It was a topic she brought up at virtually every campaign stop for more than a year.

Such tests are typically only administered for people concerned that they or a loved one might be experiencing dementia or other cognitive decline. The questions are designed to evaluate short-term memory, executive functions, language, orientation and other considerations.

In the interview, Haley said the tests could be administered by most doctors and should be voluntarily shared by candidates for federal office. She compared it to the same sort of basic financial disclosure required of candidates.

Donald Trump shakes hands with Nikki Haley in the Oval office of the White House in 2018.

Washington is “full of older people,” and voters need to know “who is up to the challenge and who is not,” she said.

Haley, 52 years old, said she watched the debate at her South Carolina home with her husband and some friends and quickly realized Biden was in deep political trouble.

“It was shocking, I think, for a lot of people,” she said. “What we saw was that Trump was strong, but I don’t even think that mattered because Biden was so amazingly unfit. The way he lost his train of thought, the way he couldn’t grasp topics of what he needed to talk about.” Trump made a string of false or misleading statements during the debate, but he largely stuck to the advice of his aides and took a less combative approach.

In the past, Haley has questioned Trump’s mental vitality. In January, while campaigning in New Hampshire, she suggested he has experienced mental “decline,” highlighting how he had mixed her up with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Trump, 78, has taken a cognitive test in the past. He has also called for Biden, 81, to release results from such testing. Polls show Biden has experienced more wariness about his age and mental sharpness among voters than Trump.

Haley alleged that Biden’s aides have hid his mental aging from voters. “What we have seen is so many people around Joe Biden and in his administration kept telling the American people, ‘He’s OK behind closed doors. He’s great behind closed doors,’ even though we were seeing signs that he wasn’t,” she said.

Predicting congressional losses if Democrats stick with Biden, she said they need to make a change . “If they continue down this path and they have Biden as their nominee, they are committing to hurting America,” she said, adding that replacing him on the ticket would be “for the good of the country.”

Dow Jones