During a rally in New Hampshire, former US President Donald Trump appeared to confuse Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and United Nations ambassador, with Nancy Pelosi, the former House Speaker, while discussing the January 6 Capitol riots in 2021.

In response, Haley questioned Trump’s mental fitness on Saturday, highlighting his confusion between her and Pelosi. She expressed concern about having a president whose mental fitness is questionable under the pressures of the presidency.

According to CNN, at the rally in New Hampshire, Trump had said, “By the way, they never report the crowd on January 6. You know, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley…did 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 guards, whatever they want. They turned it down.”

Notably, Haley was not a member of Congress and was working in the private sector at the time.

“The concern I have is – I’m not saying anything derogatory, but when you’re dealing with the pressures of a presidency, we can’t have someone else that we question whether they’re mentally fit to do it,” Haley said while addressing Trump’s statement linking Haley to the 2021 Capitol riots, according to CNN.

Haley’s vocal criticism against Trump marks a departure for a US presidential candidate who has generally avoided direct attacks on her former boss. Despite her attempts to sideline him in the Republican race, she has refrained from sharp criticism until recently.

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