Vivek Ramaswamy said he does not think mental competence tests should be done for legislators, despite the recent spate of health issues involving members of Congress.
The 2024 hopeful told DailyMail.com on Monday that he thinks it’s up to voters to decide who governs them.
But Ramaswamy has suggested he support term limits in Congress, which could solve the health issue many lawmakers and politicians face in their mid-to-late 70s.
Most recently, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, 81, froze for 30 seconds during a press conference in Kentucky last week. It was an eerily similar incident to a month earlier when he stopped moving and talking while speaking to reporters at the Capitol.
Presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy told DailyMail.com at a picnic in Salem, New Hampshire, on Monday that he is not in favor of mental competence tests for members of Congress, arguing that it is the voters who decide 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 a freeze for the second time in just one month while speaking at a news conference.
McConnell’s office and the Capitol Physician say the events were linked to dizziness resulting 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 primaries, said on Sunday there should be mental competence tests for everyone running for Congress — incumbents and newcomers alike.
“I tend to leave it to the voters,” Ramaswamy said when asked how he feels about this proposal. “So I think we have to trust the voters of this country when it comes to deciding who actually governs.”
“I’m not in favor of eliminating people who run for office because I prefer to leave that up to the voters,” he told DailyMail.com.
“It also applies to age,” he added. ‘I’ve been very consistent about that.’
At 38, Ramaswamy is by far the youngest candidate in the 2024 race. He is followed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, 44.
While he has not spoken publicly about Congressional terms, Ramaswamy, who said Monday he wants to cut the federal workforce by 75 percent, believes there should be an eight-year term for unelected federal bureaucrats.
This, he said, would be similar to term limits in Congress.
Ramaswamy has identified multiple agencies that he wants to do away with completely, including the FBI and the Ministry of Education.
Ramaswamy was one of five candidates to speak at the picnic on Monday, but was by far the fan favourite
Vivek and Apoorva Ramaswamy spoke to voters before the biotech millionaire made his remarks in Salem, New Hampshire
Ramaswamy was one of five candidates to speak Monday at the Salem GOP Labor Day picnic in New Hampshire.
He spoke on the same podium that was fine Monday afternoon: former Vice President Mike Pence; former Texas Rep. Will Hurd; former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson; and former Cranston, Rhode Island Mayor Steve Laffey.
Pence was met by a lone demonstrator sitting front and center, waving a T-shirt with Donald Trump’s mugshot on it that read, “Never Surrender.”
Trump’s first mugshot was released last month when he turned himself over to authorities in Fulton County, Georgia, following his fourth and final charge in the plan to overturn the 2020 election results.
The mugshot was immediately embraced by his supporters, as evidenced by its 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 an impact last month at the first Republican debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Pence was also one of eight candidates on that podium, where Trump was conspicuously absent.
Pence has faced hecklers and protesters several times in the past, most notably those die-hard Trump supporters who believe the former vice president is a traitor for refusing to stop Congress from announcing the results of the 2020 presidential election. certify.
The former vice president stood by his actions that day, claiming he took a vow to uphold the Constitution — and did so by overseeing the certification of Electoral College votes on January 6, 2021.
Despite having perhaps one of the highest name recognitions of the other dozen or so candidates under Trump, Pence has struggled to gain ground in the polls and has remained in the middle bracket.
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