‘Too old’: Nikki Haley makes a direct attack on Biden's age
The 51-year-old former South Carolina governor has repeatedly needled Biden, 81, over his age.
Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley launched a new ad Monday calling President Joe Biden “too old,” in one of the most direct attacks on Biden’s age so far in the 2024 campaign cycle.
“I’ll just say it: Biden’s too old,” Haley says to the camera in the 30-second ad, titled “New Generation.”
The 51-year-old former South Carolina governor has repeatedly needled Biden, 81, over his age and has pitched herself as a leader for the next generation. America is “ready to move past the stale ideas and faded names of the past, and we are more than ready for a new generation to lead us into the future,” she said at her first campaign rally in February.
Haley has also floated the idea of “mental competency tests” for politicians over the age of 75 — an idea that provoked backlash from some, including then-CNN anchor Don Lemon, who described Haley as past her "prime."
And earlier this year she suggested that America was "less safe" because of politicians' seemingly age-related stumbles.
"We can't stand watching Dianne Feinstein sit there and be told by an aide how she should vote. We can't worry about Mitch McConnell being frozen at a podium. We can't have Joe Biden forget where he is," she said on CBS' "Face the Nation," in September.
Biden became the oldest elected president when he defeated Donald Trump in 2020, and would be 86 at the end of a second term. At 77, Trump — the current frontrunner in the GOP contest — is not far behind.
Haley didn't mention the former president in the ad, though she did call on voters to “leave behind the chaos and drama of the past with a new generation and new conservative president.” Haley, who served as ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, has repeatedly used the word “chaos” to describe what a second Trump term would look like.
Haley is still trailing Trump in national polls by a significant margin. But she’s made gains in New Hampshire, a key early voting state, as she looks to solidify support from Republicans not already loyal to Trump.
A spokesperson for Biden's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
