ORANGEBURG, S.C.–2024 Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Feb. 11 predicted that President Joe Biden will not be the presumptive Democratic nominee in 30 days after the release of a damning special counsel report.
“You’re gonna have a female president of the United States,” Ms. Haley told a crowd of around 50 people at a campaign event in Orangeburg, South Carolina. “It’s gonna be me or it’s gonna be [Vice President] Kamala [Harris].”
Specifically, the report ruled that President Biden shouldn’t be charged, in part because he would appear as “an elderly man with a poor memory,” and it would be too easy for a jury to find sympathy for him and not convict him.
The report, while giving President Biden a way out of criminal consequences for his handling of the documents, ignited a firestorm.
Some have called for President Biden to be removed from office under the 25th Amendment—including Rep. Russell Fry (R-S.C.), who told The Epoch Times on Feb. 10 that congressmen were looking into taking that avenue.
The report’s findings also raised fresh questions about President Biden’s ability to remain in office for four more years.
When he took the oath of office in January 2021, President Biden was already the oldest president in U.S. history, older when he entered the White House than President Ronald Reagan—previously the record holder for the oldest president in U.S. history—was on his last day in the Oval Office. President Biden was 78 when he entered the White House; President Reagan was 77 when he left after two terms.
For Ms. Haley, the consequences of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report have not yet been actualized.
“A couple of days ago, you had the special counsel come down and say that Joe Biden is diminished; he’s losing his memory,” Ms. Haley said. “I wish him well, I do. But this is serious, and we need to be very cautious of what’s happening because Russia, China, and Iran are paying attention to all of this.
“My bet is 30 days from now, I don’t think Joe Biden is gonna be the nominee,” she stated to a chorus of cheers from the audience.
If President Biden were removed from office under the 25th Amendment, Vice President Kamala Harris would instantly become the president—and Ms. Haley implied that the vice president would, at that point, become the nominee and defeat former President Donald Trump.
Ms. Haley also took the opportunity to say that President Trump, too, is facing mental decline exacerbated by old age.
Specifically, she referenced a time when President Trump mixed up Ms. Haley with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Ms. Haley has tried to argue that President Trump’s mental acuity, like President Biden’s, has diminished.
On the other hand, President Trump himself called for a cognitive test requirement for presidents, assuring listeners that he would pass with flying colors, and indicating no concerns about his own mental toughness for holding the nation’s highest office.
