When Nikki Haley entered the presidential race in February 2023, one of the first campaign promises she made was the she would seek to mandate mental competency tests for federally elected leaders over age 75. 

The former United Nations ambassador was faced with taking on her onetime boss, former President Donald Trump, now 77, for the Republican presidential nomination, and if successful, President Joe Biden, 81, in the general election.

"America is not past its prime; it's just that our politicians are past theirs,” Haley said at her launch event in Columbia, South Carolina.

Nearly a year later, Haley, 52, is still in the race and has not only refused to back off that message, she’s increasingly stepped up her attacks on both Trump’s and Biden’s mental fitness.

On Thursday, special counsel Robert Hur released his report on Biden’s handling of classified material. While the report’s major bullet points are that Biden willfully retained and shared highly classified information but would not face criminal charges even if he were not president, Hur also called Biden’s mental acuity into question.

"We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory," the report reads.

It was an I-told-you-so moment for Haley, who is desperately looking to gain ground on Trump in the Republican primary. She seized on the report to renew her call for Biden to take a cognitive test and publicly release the results. 

“Joe Biden can’t remember major events in his life, like when he was vice president or when his son died,” Haley said in a statement Thursday. “That is sad, but it will be even sadder if we have a person in the White House who is not mentally up to the most important job in the world.”

In another statement Friday, Haley took aim at both Biden and Trump. 

"Yesterday was a wakeup call for the country,” Haley said in a statement Friday. “The White House is not a taxpayer-subsidized nursing home. It is clear to most Americans that Biden lacks the mental capacity to effectively serve as president.

"Today should also be a wake-up call for Republicans,” she added. “Donald Trump has his own mental deficiencies, is prone to temper tantrums and wild rants, and confuses countries and who was in charge of Capitol security on January 6th.

According to Hur’s report, Biden could not immediately remember the years in which he served as vice president or the timing of his son Beau’s death from cancer. In a speech Thursday, Biden insisted his memory is fine, and the White House has said there are a number of “inaccurate and inappropriate” statements in the special counsel’s report.

Trump has said he welcomes cognitive tests for all presidential candidates and also has called for Biden to undergo one.

Biden has often mistaken names, dates and events when speaking publicly, which has received much attention in conservative media. But Trump, too, has had his share of verbal gaffes.

Among them, Trump blamed Haley last month for not adequately securing the U.S. Capitol before the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. He appeared to confuse Haley, a private citizen at the time, with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The Haley campaign recently launched a new series of digital ads, online videos and emails attacking Biden and Trump as “Grumpy Old Men,” a reference to the 1993 comedy film. According to the campaign, the goal of the series is to “highlight what the American people can expect from Donald Trump and Joe Biden: More chaos, confusion, drama, and a refusal to debate.”

Haley posted another image on social media Friday of Biden’s and Trump’s faces superimposed on the bodies of actors Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in the “Grumpy Old Men” movie poster.

"Donald Trump confused me for Nancy Pelosi,” she wrote. "Joe Biden confused the president of Mexico with the president of Egypt.

"The first party to retire their 80-year-old candidate will be the party that wins," Haley added, a line she has often repeated on the campaign trail. On Friday, she said she thought Democrats might now be working to replace Biden as their candidate.

On Thursday night, just after defending his memory, Biden mixed up Mexico and Egypt while discussing bringing humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.