Donald Trump’s cognitive ability came under the spotlight after he mixed up the names of his Republican primary rival Nikki Haley and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in a campaign rally on Friday. As he blamed Haley for the Jan. 6 riot, a Department of Justice veteran blamed the former president for striving to create a clean image of himself by shifting blame for the insurrection onto someone else.
What Happened: While speaking in Concord, New Hampshire, Trump suggested that Haley was responsible for the security lapses on Jan. 6, 2021, when rioters stormed Capitol Hill in a bid to overturn President Joe Biden’s election.
In a video clip of the speech shared by a MeidasTouch.com editor, Trump says, “By the way, they never report the crowd on January 6. You know Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, you know, they — do you know they destroyed all of the information, all of the evidence, everything, deleted and destroyed all of it. All of it, because of lots of things.”
“Like Nikki Haley is in charge of security. We offered her 10,000 people.”
Trump was apparently confused and used Haley’s name instead of Pelosi, as he had previously blamed the latter for not approving his request for 10,000 National Guard troops to guard the U.S. Capitol on the ill-fated day. Pelosi was the speaker at that time, while Haley did not hold any political office.
The former president’s finger-pointing at Pelosi was found to be baseless by political analysts.
Trump Criticized: Andrew Weissmann, an ex-DOJ attorney and a political commentator, took to X, formerly Twitter, to air his view on Trump’s campaign speech. “This is nuts since HE was in charge,” he said.
“And he is embracing J6 to his MAGA followers, but in NH is trying to pretend otherwise.”
Haley responded to the mix-up in her campaign speech on Saturday by questioning Trump’s mental fitness to be the president.
“The concern I have is.. I am not saying anything derogatory, but when you are dealing with the pressures of presidency, we can’t have someone else that we question whether they are mentally fit to be the president,” she said.
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