COLUMBIA, S.C. – Nikki Haley on Saturday puzzled whether or not Donald Trump is mentally in a position to serving as president once more after he again and again appeared to confuse her with former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a marketing campaign speech.
As she campaigned in Keene, New Hampshire, Haley referenced Trump’s speech the night time ahead of, during which he mistakenly asserted that Haley was once accountable for Capitol safety on January 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the construction in the hunt for to prevent the certification of his loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump first mentioned that Haley became down safety presented by way of his management on Jan. 6 and alternatively discussed Haley, including, “They destroyed all of the information, all of the evidence, everything, deleted and destroyed all of it.”
Trump, 77, has accused Pelosi of turning down safety he says his management presented, however a different House committee empaneled to probe the assault discovered no proof to reinforce that declare.
“They’re saying he got confused, that he was talking about something else, he’s talking about Nancy Pelosi,” Haley said on Saturday.
“He mentioned me multiple times in that scenario. The concern I have is — I’m not saying anything derogatory — but when you’re dealing with the pressures of the presidency, we can’t have someone else that we question whether they’re mentally fit to do this,” Haley mentioned. “We can’t.”
Speaking at a Bloomberg News discussion board on Saturday in Manchester, Haley marketing campaign supervisor Betsy Ankney referenced Haley’s remarks and mentioned Trump “made a horny obvious gaffe closing night time.”
“It’s a distinction without a difference. It’s Nikki and Nancy,” Trump campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita said to reporters Saturday night. “What’s the difference?”
At his rally Saturday night in Manchester, Trump said that he took a cognitive test and “aced it.”
“I’ll let you know when I go bad. I really think I’ll be able to tell you,” he added. “I feel my mind is stronger now than it was 25 years ago. Is that possible?”
Trump, who won Monday’s Iowa caucuses and is the present GOP front-runner, picked Haley to function his United Nations ambassador and has ramped up his grievance of her marketing campaign because the 12 months’s votes have got underway.
On Saturday, he stumped in New Hampshire with a strong supplement of backers from Haley’s house state of South Carolina, together with Gov. Henry McMaster and several other U.S. House individuals. An afternoon previous, Sen. Tim Scott — who ended his personal 2024 bid in November and was once appointed to the Senate by way of Haley in 2012 — recommended Trump over Haley in a rousing call-and-response speech of his personal in New Hampshire.
Since getting into the GOP race just about a 12 months in the past, Haley, 52, has advocated for “mental competency tests” for older politicians, a swipe on the ages of each Trump and Biden.
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Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price and Jill Colvin in Manchester, New Hampshire, contributed to this document.
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Meg Kinnard will also be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP
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