Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley pitched herself for the White House gig to hundreds of Iowans Monday by knocking the age of the former and current president.
Haley was speaking at a campaign event in the state ahead of the Iowa caucuses when an audience member asked her why voters who backed former President Donald Trump in the past should support her instead, the Des Moines Register reported.
“Because I don’t think you have to be 80 years old to be in DC,” the former UN ambassador quipped, according to the local outlet.
President Biden turned 80 in November and Trump, who is now 76, would turn 80 while in office if he was reelected.
Haley, who is 51, received a round of applause for her comments, the Register reported.
She said she was proud to work in Trump’s cabinet — “but as dire of a situation as this is, as much as all the media and everybody wants to talk about the past, we need to leave the status quo in the past. We’ve got work to do. We’ve got to look forward.”
Advertisement
Advertisement
Last week, the presidential hopeful saw her own age become the subject of attacks.
CNN anchor Don Lemon said Haley was “not in her prime” during last Thursday’s “CNN This Morning” show.
Lemon, 56, then told his co-hosts Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins that “a woman is considered to be in her prime in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s.”
He was responding to Haley’s call for mental competency tests for politicians over 75 when he made the shocking remarks that many have called sexist and ageist.
Lemon said he regretted what he said in a statement on Twitter and reportedly apologized to his CNN colleagues.
He is expected to return to the air Wednesday after a three-show hiatus — despite calls for his removal from the station.
“The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg also took aim at Haley’s age during Monday’s show.
Goldberg disagreed with Haley’s assertion that it was time for a “new generation” of leadership, meaning herself.
“You’re not a new generation. You’re 51. What are you talking about?” the Sister Act actress said.
However the former South Carolina governor was unfazed.
“If my age is all they have, it means we’re winning,” she said on Fox’s “The Story with Martha MacCallum.” “I’m okay with that.”