Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Wednesday appeared excessively concerned with attacks on Donald Trump’s mental acuity after he repeatedly mixed up former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) with Republican challenger Nikki Haley. (Watch the video below.)
On Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle,” the Texas senator criticized Haley for refusing to concede defeat to Trump in the GOP presidential race after losing in New Hampshire. But he seemed particularly ticked at Haley for mocking Trump’s Pelosi blunder.
He spun his anger into proposing a cognitive test between Trump and President Joe Biden for the presidency — no election required.
“I gotta say, some of the things she’s saying about his mental cognizance are just ridiculous,” Cruz told Laura Ingraham, per Mediaite. “But there’s a reason for it. Joe Biden obviously has diminished massively, and so the left is worried about it. People recognize Joe Biden — you wouldn’t let Joe Biden handle the remote control on your television, and he’s got the nuclear codes, so the left’s talking point and the Democrats’ talking point is, ‘Well, Trump’s old too, and he’s diminished.’”
Cruz continued, “Nikki is echoing that, and they’re doing it to defend Joe Biden. I suggest this for the general election. Let’s do a cognitive test: Joe Biden versus Donald Trump, the winner is president. I’m very happy to take those odds because Trump will whip Biden’s ass.”
Cruz’s dwelling on the matter appears to speak more to his concern about perhaps a diminished perception of Trump than Biden’s intellectual capacity.
However, one recent poll indicated that Biden, 81, draws far more concern from voters over his cognitive capability than his likely general election opponent, Trump, 77.
Trump has already challenged both Haley and Biden to aptitude tests. Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel said let it happen because watching Trump “trying to figure out which one is a rectangle and which is a square” is worth the fun.
Trump raised eyebrows with a prolonged lapse last week in which he tried to blame Pelosi for the Capitol riot but kept saying Haley’s name instead. The incident spurred prominent conservatives into defense mode.