MSNBC’s Heilemann Says ‘More Important’ GOP Pass ‘Civic Competency’ Test Than Haley’s Mental Exam Idea: You Fail, You Go Home

Former governor and ambassador Nikki Haley said in her 2024 campaign announcement that politicians over 75 years of age should face mandatory mental competency testing. But on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, John Heilemann said he has an idea for a much more important test, and it applies strictly to Republicans.

Haley’s announcement caught the MSNBC morning crew’s imagination, and they spent a great deal of time on the topic this week — though perhaps in not quite as exciting a way as CNN’s Don Lemon.

Morning Joe was critical of Haley and, in keeping with the format, Republicans in general. Heilemann used one of the most talked about parts of her speech as a jumping off point to do both things.

During her remarks, Haley fired several shots across the bow of both Joe Biden and Donald Trump, not to mention a slew of members of Congress, by talking about age and time in Washington.

“In the America I see, the permanent politician will finally retire. We’ll have term limits for Congress,” she sid. “And mandatory mental competency tests for politicians over 75 years old.”

Heilemann brought it up to say he believes there’s a much more important test.

“If her test that she wants to apply to anybody over 75 is for mental competence, I do think we should apply both a test for a kind of political competence and civic competence to every one of these Republicans who runs,” he said.

His explanation of the two tests was pretty simple, and perhaps somewhat redundant, both focusing predictably on Trump.

“The political competence should be: if you’re a former — especially if you’re a former member of the Trump administration, are you willing to take on Donald Trump by name? If you’re not, please go home,” he said.

“And second, are you willing to say, straight-up, first question out of everybody’s mouth should be: Guys, just want to double check with you. Is Joe Biden the legitimately elected President of the United States?” he said. “If there’s any equivocation on that matter, let alone denial, you fail the civic competence test. And again, thank you for playing, you can go home.”

As Mika Brzezinski agreed enthusiastically, he argued that his proposal is superior to the one proposed by Haley.

“Those are those are two tests, I think, that are more important than the mental competence tests that Nikki Haley wants to apply,” he said, adding that he’d like Haley to be first up for testing.

“I’d like to hear her, as she begins her tour around,” he said. “She didn’t answer them yesterday, I’d like to hear her on all three subjects over the course of the coming days.”

Watch the clip above via MSNBC.