Former President Ronald Reagan's daughter, Patti Davis, expressed support for cognitive tests for presidents.
Cognitive tests for those seeking higher office have been proposed this election season as President Joe Biden, 81, and former President Donald Trump, 77, both stump for re-election.
Davis made her remarks during a Sunday interview on NBC News' Meet the Press with host Kristen Welker.
Welker noted Biden and Trump's age and asked Davis if she believed employing cognitive tests for candidates were necessary for Biden and Trump among others seeking the presidency.
“Probably, yeah,” Davis responded. “I mean, in just what we know about what age can do. It doesn’t always do that, but it would probably be a good idea."
Davis noted her father was 77 years old at the end of his eight years in office.
"It seems so young now, doesn’t it?” Davis added.
Davis later said her father would be "appalled" at the current state of politics in America.
“He didn’t understand lack of civility. He didn’t understand attacking another person," Davis said of former President Reagan. "I mean, he could be, you know, pretty pointed in what he would say about someone else. But he didn’t understand cruelty. And that’s what we’re dealing with now. And I think he wouldn’t understand that."
Davis suggested her father would also be "scared" for the country's democracy.
"I think he would address people more than any candidates," she continued. "I think he would address the American people at what has divided us. And, I mean, in my own opinion and, I don’t know, I think this probably is how he would think, is our divisions really started because we’re all so scared.”
Davis said division in America was stemmed from fear, adding her father would want Americans to "look at one another as human beings."
Davis' interview comes off the heels of her book, Dear Mom and Dad: A Letter About Family, Memory, and the America We Once Knew, which was released earlier this month.
Reagan's mental capabilities were called into question during his presidency.
The former president, who was 69 when he was inaugurated, was the oldest president to assume the office at the time. Reagan's age at inauguration was surpassed by Trump, who was 70 at the time of his 2017 inauguration, and followed by President Joe Biden, who was 78 when he was inaugurated in 2021.
Reagan passed away nearly 20 years ago after battling Alzheimer's disease.
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, 52, recently said she would take a mental competency test and challenged Trump and Biden to follow her lead.
"We need to have mental competency tests for anyone over the age of 75,” Haley said during an appearance on CBS News. “I don’t care if we do it for 50 and up. But what happened with Joe Biden this week and what we’ve seen with Donald Trump is another example of why.”
“We have to face the reality of the fact that, when you get to those ages, you get diminished,” she added. “These are people making decisions on our national security.”
“These are people making decisions on the future of our economy,” she continued. “We need to know they’re at the top of their game.”
Last week, special counsel Robert K. Hur released a report through the DOJ which found Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen.” However, the DOJ will not seek criminal charges against the president because he was not in a “mental state of willfulness.”
