Vivek Ramaswamy disagrees with Nikki Haley’s proposed mental competency tests after
Vivek Ramaswamy said he doesn’t think there should be mental competency tests for lawmakers despite the recent slew of health issues with members of Congress.
The 2024 hopeful told DailyMail.com Monday that he thinks it’s up to the voters to decide who governs them.
But Ramaswamy has suggested he would support term limits in Congress, which could solve the health-related issue many lawmakers and politicians are running into when they reach their mid to late 70s.
Most recently Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, 81, froze for 30 seconds last week during a press conference in Kentucky. It was an eerily similar incident to a month prior where he stopped moving and speaking while speaking to reporters at the Capitol.
Presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy told DailyMail.com during a picnic in Salem, New Hampshire Monday that he does not support mental competency tests for members of Congress, claiming it’s voters’ decision who to elect and keep in office. Pictured: Ramaswamy (right) and his wife Apoorva attend the Salem GOP Labor Day Picnic on Monday
It comes after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell suffered for the second time in just one month a freezing episode when speaking at a press conference
McConnell’s office and the Capitol Physician say the events were connected to lightheadedness from a concussion he suffered in March after falling at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington, D.C.
Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, who is also running in the 2024 Republican primary, said Sunday that there needs to be mental competency tests for everyone running for Congress – incumbent and newcomer alike.
‘I tend to leave it to the voters,’ Ramaswamy said when asked how he feels about this proposal. ‘So I think that we should trust the voters of this country when it comes to deciding who actually governs.’
‘I don’t favor eliminating people for running for office because I’d rather trust the voters with it,’ he told DailyMail.com.
‘It goes for age as well,’ he added. ‘I’ve been very consistent on that.’
At the age of 38, Ramaswamy is by far the youngest candidate in the 2024 race. He’s followed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, 44.
While he has not gone publicly on record to speak about term limits for Congress, Ramaswamy, who said Monday he wants to cut the federal workforce by 75 percent, thinks there should be eight-year term limits for unelected federal bureaucrats.
This, he said, would be similar to term limits in Congress.
Ramaswamy has identified multiple agencies he wants to abolish completely, including the FBI and Department of Education.
Ramaswamy was one of five candidates to speak at the picnic on Monday – but was by far the fan favorite
Vivek and Apoorva Ramaswamy spoke with voters before the biotech millionaire made his remarks in Salem, New Hampshire
Ramaswamy was one of five candidates who spoke at the Salem GOP Labor Day picnic in New Hampshire on Monday.
He spoke on the same stage Monday afternoon was in order: Former Vice President Mike Pence; former Texas Rep. Will Hurd; former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson; and former Cranston, Rhode Island Mayor Steve Laffey.
Pence was met with a lone protester sitting front-and-center waving a t-shirt with Donald Trump’s mugshot with the message: ‘Never Surrender.’
Trump’s first mugshot was released last month when he turned himself over to authorities in Fulton County, Georgia after his fourth and latest indictment in the scheme to overturn the 2020 election results.
The mugshot was immediately embraced by his supporters – as evident by it’s use on the t-shirt to protest Pence on Monday.
By far the fan-favorite at the Salem GOP Labor Day Picnic was Ramaswamy, who made a splash at the first Republican debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin last month. Pence was also one of the eight candidates on that stage, which was noticeably absent of Trump.
Pence has faced hecklers and protesters several times in the past, specifically those die-hard Trump supporters who think the former vice president is a traitor for refusing to block Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election results.
The ex-VP has stood by his actions that day, claiming that he took a vow to uphold the Constitution – and did so by overseeing certification of the Electoral College votes on January 6, 2021.
Despite holding arguably one of the highest name recognitions of the other about a dozen candidates below Trump, Pence is struggling to gain ground in polls and has remained in the middle of the pack.