GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Thursday called the Senate “the most privileged nursing home in the country.”

In response to a question about Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) apparently freezing up on Wednesday while taking questions in Covington, Ky., Haley said on Fox News that the Kentucky senator has “done some great things, and he deserves credit,” but emphasized that “you have to know when to leave.”

““No one should feel good about seeing that any more than we should feel good about seeing Dianne Feinstein, any more than we should feel good about a lot of what’s happening or seeing Joe Biden’s decline,” Haley said. “What I will say is, right now, the Senate is the most privileged nursing home in the country.”

  • ATQ@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Well what do you know? I agree with Nikki Haley on something.

      • MTLion3@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        The average age IS pretty fucking high. Fresh blood would be good, methinks. Most of these codgers are career politicians who’ve just cling to their positions for decades

      • ATQ@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Biden over Trump was an easy vote. But Biden wasn’t exactly my first pick. There’s something fucked up about people who would be considered absolutely unemployable in any other profession clinging to power and running the country like it was 40 years ago. This applies all around.

    • jdf038@mander.xyz
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      1 year ago

      I agree with you and her as far as health care but I doubt McConnell and Feinstein are actually enjoying their golden years. You’d expect a nursing home to help with that part.

      Oh well I don’t feel sorry for them as they are power addicted idiots.

      • Chariotwheel@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        They look miserable. But I don’t know if Feinstein is power addicted at this point and not just entirely confused and pupeteered by other people. I wonder what she would answer if you asked her how old she is right now.

  • Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Joe Biden’s decline? Look, I don’t like having great-grandpa in the Whitehouse or Senate or Supreme Court, and I think we should have an age limit, but there’s no need to invent a “decline” to make a point.

        • meco03211@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          This. He denied Garland to the Supreme Court. Then without a shred of shame shoved Barret through. He blatantly shat on a precedent he himself set. His supporters don’t care. They think this is good.

    • JakoJakoJako13@lemmy.world
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      I’ve lost all of my grandparents. Most of them I lost at an age where I could comprehend what was going on. Death is the slowest process on earth. The actual passing is quick. It’s emotional and hard but it lasts for the blink of an eye. The decline can take years. To watch somebody age in those final 5-10 of their life is excruciating. It’s a drip feed of watching somebody act in ways where you can tell they’re just not themselves anymore.

      Now with all that said I’m not saying Biden is knocking on deaths door, or that the process even started. What’s clear to everybody though is that he’s not the same guy as when he started his presidency. He’s studders a lot more. He’s lost a lot of hair. And he’s clearly slower than he was just three years ago.

      Hes doing the most stressful job in the world. A job that accelerates the aging process. He’s already of an advanced age more so than any president in the history of this country. He’s approaching the line of being too old to non functional. So if you’re against him you’re gonna take that to the extreme and cry he’s dying right at this moment. But to everybody else he’s past the “he’s old” stage to “ehhh he’s really fucking old, should he be doing that stage?” That’s a decline.

      • dhork@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        He’s clearly diminished, but I hope to be as active when I’m in my 80s. Even this guy, who isn’t physically what he was 20 years ago, is a much, much better choice than the clown show on the other side.

        • JakoJakoJako13@lemmy.world
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          Oh absolutely. I’d take Biden over the youngest Republican any day. But to act like there’s been no decline at all is just denying the facts of being a human on this planet.

      • DrPop@lemmy.one
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        1 year ago

        Alot of people disregard the fact that he has a speech impediment that makes him stutter. He’s trained himself to control it, taking a moment to reset, but yeah it’s a stressful ass job so I imagine he has a more difficult time speaking. I’m not gonna say he’s a great orater but he does know how to actually deliver a message. Also Those same people talking about his age also completely disregard that Trump is just as old.

  • Hazdaz@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

    Fuck Haley, but she is right about the nursing home part. But there is a fix that Americans don’t want to admit - their voting - or LACK OF voting - is what is keeping these elderly Senators in office. Of course she is an opportunist twat that is only saying this to try to hit at Biden indirectly by bringing up the age issue.

    • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world
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      LOL, no. Someone forgot Jesse Helms. He stayed for decades because eastern NC actively voted for him every single term, and he ran his office like every election was his first. His positions were laughable and often horrid, like quarantining gays in the AIDS years, but he took care of the NC farmers, he had a massive constituents services staff, his office was open to his people, they knew Helms would help even the least of them if they asked, and in return they kept him there for as long as they could, long past the point of ridiculousness. Same with Strom Thurmond. They didn’t care he was old, they cared that he helped them, and he did.

      Dianne Feinstein was a force to be reckoned with before she became senile as well. But if you’re a California voter, what do you get in place of a very powerful, long-term senator with many top committee assignments and the pull to pass whatever she wants, when you DO decide to vote her out? You get a freshman, and all that accrued power and influence for California in the Senate now goes to someone in another state.

      Of course she is an opportunist twat that is only saying this to try to hit at Biden indirectly by bringing up the age issue.

      You’re 100% right about that.

      • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world
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        Benching Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are her motive for starters, and there are a lot more that are only a few years younger: this isn’t about age nearly as much as it’s about freeing influence and power from a handful of titans on the D side.

        It’s also about pushing the Senate closer to R control, and making it easier to target Dianne Feinstein by removing any whataboutery involving Mitch McConnell. In his own right, Mitch McConnell is also an albatross to many in his own party, so for them this is two birds with one stone.

        But either way, the problem with putting in absolute age limits is that the longer you’re in Congress (either house) the more power you accrue, and when you’re good anyway this gives you the potential to be spectacularly good, and to push through legislation for average Americans that would not be accomplished otherwise, like Ted Kennedy did for Obamacare.

        Another example would be Elizabeth Warren, who created the CFPB, which gives average consumers much more leverage than the usual thoughts and prayers when dealing with big banks. Because she had the seniority and committee assignments she had for as long as she did, she was able to force this through and keep it alive despite MASSIVE pressure from big banks (big donors on both sides) to shoot it down or kneecap its power in any way they could think of. And that’s just another example of what an older, long-term Senator can do for the people. In the House, Nancy Pelosi is another example of the power and influence an older legislator can accrue, and wield for the good of the country if they are true to their oaths.

        In light of that, to me, it should be up to each party to cap a particular legislator’s age on a case-by-case basis, because the chronological number just isn’t enough anymore, especially now when there are razor thin margins involved in the balance of power in both houses of Congress. It can be done responsibly without ceding any power: for example, when Ted Kennedy was sick, he simply had other senators fill his committee assignments. John McCain was another who was ill for a long time. This does not have to be an issue, and in the past it would not be. But now it’s just another convenient target to shoot down all obstacles to a bicameral majority.

        It’s also worth remembering that just like with the double-faced R approach to Supreme Court nominations, if age-based term limits were passed the Rs would simply carve out exceptions for whoever they wanted while continuing to insist on adherence to the letter of the law for anyone else. Same as it ever was.

  • misterundercoat@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Politician reads the room and adopts the most lukewarm, obvious, low-hanging-fruit take in an effort to score free publicity. Damn, really raising the bar here.

  • just_another_person@lemmy.world
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    I actually hate Nikki Haley. Her policies, ideas, and alignment are all wrong. But she is somehow self-aware enough to realize that a bunch of old people are running our country right now, and how detrimental that is.

    Her miscalculation is that she believes young voters will refill the GOP coffers with people as crazy as she is. Won’t happen.

  • blazera@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Who cares what this monster says? Yall want federal abortion bans, lgbt bans, more environmental damage and worse access to medicare?

  • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    This is due to the rules of the Senate which state that committee seniority is given to the longest serving members. Both sides keep people in office as long as possible to secure these important positions.