Jill Biden blasts Haley's proposed competency test for politicians over age 75

First lady Jill Biden blasted Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s suggestion that politicians over the age of 75 take mental competency tests. 

During an interview set to air on Monday, CNN White House correspondent Arlette Saenz asked Biden her thoughts on Haley’s proposal. 

“Ridiculous,” Biden replied. 

When Saenz asked if President Biden would take a mental competency test, the first lady replied: “I mean, we haven't even discussed … we would never even discuss something like that.” 

Haley, a former South Carolina governor and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, announced her 2024 presidential campaign last month. She made headlines with a call for mandatory mental competency tests for elderly politicians during her speech launching her campaign.

“In the America I see, the permanent politician will finally retire,” Haley said at the time. “We’ll have term limits for Congress and mandatory mental competency tests for politicians over 75 years old.”

The comments were seen as a shot at both President Biden, 80, and former President Trump, 76, who are seen as the leading presidential candidates in their respective parties, though Biden has yet to officially announce his reelection bid.

Jill Biden joins a number of prominent figures who have pushed back against Haley’s proposal, with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is 81, calling the idea “absurd.” 

“We are fighting racism, we’re fighting sexism, we’re fighting homophobia, I think we should also be fighting ageism,” Sanders said in an interview on CBS’s “Face The Nation” last month.

In another CBS interview, Former Vice President Mike Pence, 63, a potential GOP presidential candidate in 2024, said voters can decide on their own whether age is a deciding factor in elections.

“Look, I think the American people can sort that out, I really do,” Pence said during the interview. “I mean, the long and unbroken history of this country proves again and again, the wisdom and common sense and judgment of the American people.”