Haley calls on Biden to ‘immediately’ take a competency test — as moves already being made to try to force him from office
Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley is demanding President Biden “immediately” take a mental competency test following the damning special counsel report about his age and failing memory— as at least one congresswoman is moving to try to force him from office.
“Joe Biden can’t remember major events in his life, like when he was vice president or when his son died,” Haley posted on X Thursday night, following the report in which special counsel Robert Hur described the president as an “elderly man with a poor memory.”
“That is sad, but it will be even sadder if we have a person in the White House who is not mentally up to the most important job in the world.
“Joe Biden should take a mental competency test immediately, and it should be shared with the public.”
In the more than 300-page report released Thursday, Hur concluded that while the 81-year-old president “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials,” Hur would not recommend charges, noting “it would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him” of a serious felony that “requires a mental state of willfulness.”
Biden, the oldest-ever US president, angrily defended his faculties — only to confuse the presidents of Mexico and Egypt, his latest alarming gaffe in days.
In light of the report, Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, calling for the cabinet to “explore” the use of the Constitution’s 25th Amendment to remove Biden from office.
She wrote that she has “grave concerns” about the president’s mental acuity, according to Fox News, which first obtained the letter.
“After concluding that President Biden knowingly and willfully removed, mishandled and disclosed classified documents repeatedly over a period of decades, Mr. Hur nevertheless recommended that charges not be brought against him,” wrote Tenney, who represents part of upstate New York.
“Special Counsel’s reasoning was alarming.
“He recited numerous incidents in which President Biden exhibited dramatically compromised mental faculties and concluded that a jury would be likely to perceive President Biden as a sympathetic and forgetful old man.”
Tenney went on to tell the attorney general that she “need not tell you that selective prosecution is morally, ethically and legally prohibited.
“We don’t prosecute or decline to prosecute people based on their personalities or on the public’s anticipated perception of them,” she said.
“If Special Counsel finds that the evidence forms a reasonable basis to bring charges, he must do so.”
Tenney also said the Department of Justice “cannot ethically bring charges against former President [Donald] Trump because he has mental acuity and a forceful personality, and decline to bring charges against President Biden because of his cognitive decline.”
She said Biden “needs to be charged unless he is not mentally competent to stand trial.”
“Candidly, Special Counsel’s report makes a reasonable case that he is not.
“Being unable to remember what position he held and when is exceptionally concerning. Being unable to remember when one’s child died — even within a time frame of several years — is perhaps a more damning reflection of his mental impairment.”
Tenney added that Biden “most seemingly lacks the ability to execute his presidential responsibilities.
Joe Biden's classified documents probe report
- Special counsel Robert Hur determined that President Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials” after leaving office as vice president in 2016.
- The records kept by Biden included documents on military and foreign policy in Afghanistan as well as other national security and foreign policy issues.
- Biden kept the classified documents in part to assist with the writing of his memoirs. According to the report, Biden told a ghostwriter in a 2017 conversation that he had “just found all the classified stuff downstairs.”
- Despite the findings, Hur’s 388-page report recommended that the president not face charges.
- The special counsel noted that Biden would likely present himself to a jury as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” if he were to face trial.
“So it is incumbent upon you to explore proceedings to remove the President pursuant to the 25th Amendment of the United States Constitution,” she argued.
“President Biden needs to be charged, or he needs to be removed,” she said.
“There is no middle ground.”
The Post has reached out to the White House for comment.
