PoliticsTuesday 07.02.24

“A legitimate question": Nancy Pelosi says “both candidates” deserve scrutiny, but it’s fair to question Biden’s health.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday said it's fair to question President Biden's health, adding that “both" Biden and Trump deserve scrutiny over their age.

“Do you have questions as to whether this was a one bad night or whether there is something more serious involved and whether [Biden] needs to be more open, if he does have a medical condition, if he is slipping,” asked MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell. “Everybody knows there's an age issue and he certainly did the opposite of reassuring people with that high risk, potentially high reward debate plan that they came up with. It backfired.”

The California Democrat responded by highlighting Biden’s accomplishments in his first term as president, but conceded that the president had a “bad night” in last week’s presidential debate.

“We have all these things that he was masterful in helping to orchestrate, to write and to pass. So he has a vision. He has knowledge. He has judgment. He has a strategic thinking and the rest,” Pelosi said. “He has a bad night. Now, again, I think it's a legitimate question to say, ‘Is this an episode or is this a condition?’ And so when people ask that question, it's legitimate of both candidates.”

Pelosi also accused former president Donald Trump of telling a “pack of lies” during the debate.

“I tore up [Trump’s] speech when he lied to the Congress on every single page of his State of the Union. We should be tearing up what he said the other day because it was a pack of lies,” the former House Speaker said. “And it's very hard to debate somebody when you have to undo or debunk everything they're saying. Both candidates owe whatever test you want to put them to in terms of their mental acuity and their health, both of them.”

Recount Wire

ADVERTISEMENT