Former President Donald Trump appeared to mistakenly refer to GOP rival Nikki Haley instead of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., when discussing the Jan. 6,2021, riot at a campaign rally in New Hampshire on Friday night.
The mix-up came during Trump’s remarks to a crowd of supporters in Concord, where he spoke for more than 90 minutes and repeatedly bashed Haley, who served in his administration as an ambassador to the United Nations and has never been a member of Congress.
“Nikki Haley, you know they, do you know they destroyed all of the information, all of the evidence, everything, deleted and destroyed all of it. All of it, because of lots of things like Nikki Haley is in charge of security. We offered her 10,000 people, soldiers, National Guard, whatever they want. They turned it down. They don’t want to talk about that. These are very dishonest people,” Trump said.
NBC News has reached out to Trump’s campaign for comment on his remarks.
Trump has previously accused Pelosi of turning down 10,000 soldiers on Jan. 6, a claim that has been debunked. The final report by the now-defunct Jan. 6 committee said: “Some have suggested that President Trump gave an order to have 10,000 troops ready for January 6th. The Select Committee found no evidence of this. In fact, President Trump’s Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller directly refuted this when he testified under oath.”
Trump’s gaffe comes as he frequently portrays President Joe Biden, 81, as confused and mentally unfit for office. The former president, 77, has previously confused politicians during his speeches. In September, Trump confused Biden with former President Barack Obama, saying “with Obama, we won an election that everyone said couldn’t be won.”
During the same September speech, Trump also said that “we would be in World War II very quickly if we’re going to be relying on” Biden.
Trump has defended switching Obama’s and Biden’s names by saying he “sarcastically” swaps them “as an indication that others may actually be having a very big influence in running our country.”
In October, Trump referred to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as the leader of Turkey, and he greeted a crowd that he said was from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, when he was in Sioux City, Iowa.
While Biden has had his fair share of gaffes and flubs, he hasn’t made his predecessor’s mental fitness a major campaign issue like Trump has.
For example, Biden in 2022 asked at a White House event whether Rep. Jackie Walorski was in the audience — almost two months after the Indiana Republican died in a car crash. The president had put out a statement offering his condolences after Walorski’s death.
Voters in a September NBC News poll expressed concern about the ages of Trump and Biden. About 74% of respondents said they had major or moderate concerns about Biden, at 80 years old, “not having the necessary mental and physical health to be president for a second term.” About 47% of respondents reported similar concerns about Trump.
