‘Honestly, I Forgot She Was Running’: Biden Spox Utterly Blows Off Question About Nikki Haley

Republican Nikki Haley saying on Fox News that President Joe Biden living to 86 years of age isn’t “likely” drew media attention and a snarky comment from the White House about the 2024 election.

“If you vote for Joe Biden, you really are counting on a President [Kamala] Harris,” said Haley on Fox News this week. “Because the idea that he would make it until 86 years old is not something that I think is likely.”

The remark prompted a variety of reactions, including NBC’s White House correspondent Mike Memoli reaching out for comment from Deputy White House Press Secretary and Senior Communications Adviser for Strategic Response Andrew Bates. And he sure got one.

MSNBC’s Alex Witt spoke with Memoli about the 2024 campaign-related response, which she noted the White House generally works to avoid.

Memoli said the comment, which echoes frequent Twitter snark directed at Haley, was “spicy” but “illustrative” of the Biden camp’s perspective that it’ll be Donald Trump he eventually faces in 2024.

ALEX WITT: We have a new and notable response from the White House over 2024 candidate Nikki Haley’s comment about President Biden’s age. A spokesman says, quote, “Honestly, I forgot she was running.”

I want to bring in NBC White House correspondent Mike Memoli about that. Okay. I see the grin on your face on that. But listen, this is serious because it is significant that the White House spokesperson was even able to get a green light and make this comment. Right. How did that happen?

MIKE MEMOLI: Yeah, that’s absolutely right, Alex, because anybody who’s been watching White House press briefings, especially this week as President Biden announced he was running for reelection, has often heard White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to answer even the most tangentially related questions to the campaign. She’s often cited the Hatch Act, which is that policy that prohibits anybody who works for government, is paid by taxpayers from discussing electoral campaign politics. But this was a statement that apparently did pass muster of the White House lawyers, who, I have to tell you, often very have a very low bar for what they deem related to campaign politics.

MIKE MEMOLI: And so what this statement, I think does tell us is two things. One is just how much the president’s age is going to be a factor of concern to the Biden team. We did see Karine Jean-Pierre trip up a little bit this week when she initially refused to answer a question about whether the president would commit to serving all four years of a second term if he were elected.

The second thing is, I think gives us a little bit of a window into Alex is the vet, the high confidence of Biden advisers that ultimately it’s going to be Donald Trump who President Biden is seeking reelection against a rematch of the 2020 race. We’ve often heard advisers point to the fact that one reason why they’re confident of this is that the other Republicans in the race so far, including Haley, just have not been willing to take on Trump in their own party, are afraid of a triggering his own loyal base of supporters.

And so this is a statement that we may not get a lot as spicy or as interesting as the one from Andrew Bates here. But I think it was very illustrative of how the White House is viewing this potential campaign ahead.

Watch the clip above via MSNBC.

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]