Ronald Reagan's daughter Patti Davis thinks older presidential candidates like Trump and Biden should receive cognitive testing

• Ronald Reagan became the oldest president was he was inaugurated at 69
• Donald Trump and Joe Biden beat that record with their respective ages of 70 and 78 at the time of taking their oaths of office
• Reagan’s daughter Patti Davis think cognitive tests for older candidates is a ‘good idea’ 

Ronald Reagan’s daughter Patti Davis thinks that older presidential candidates should be administered cognitive tests.

President Reagan was 69-years-old when he was inaugurated in 1981, making him the oldest president in U.S. history at the time. He left office after two terms at the age of 77.

But the last two U.S. presidents have broken Reagan’s record.

Donald Trump was 70-years-old when he took the oath of office in January 2017 and Joe Biden was 78 when he became president.

Now politicians, rivals and critics are calling for heightened requirements for candidates of heightened age to make sure they are mentally fit to serve as chief executive. This includes 2024 hopeful Nikki Haley, 52, who thinks politicians 75 and older should be required to take a cognitive test.

Ronald Reagan’s daughter Patti Davis said it would be a ‘good idea’ to impose cognitive tests for presidential candidates of advanced ages

Ronald Reagan was the oldest president in U.S. history at the time of service – he was 69 when  inaugurated. The late president is pictured with wife Nancy Reagan after taking the oath of office on January 20, 1981

Arguments for the requirement increased after Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Hur released a damning report this month bringing into question Biden’s ‘poor memory’ and ‘diminished faculties in advancing age.’

Hur noted that Biden forgot the dates when he was vice president, as well as when his son Beau died.

Davis, 71, told NBC Meet the Press host Kristen Welker that her father’s age when leaving office now seems young.

‘The president is in his 80s, former President Trump – the frontrunner – is in his late 70s. Do you think there should be cognitive tests for people running for the highest office in the land?’ Welker asked Davis in a Sunday morning interview.

‘Probably,’ Reagan’s daughter said. ‘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.’

‘My father was 77 when he left office after two terms,’ she added. ‘It seems so young now, doesn’t it?’

If Biden were to earn a second term, he would end his eight years in office at the age of 86.

Trump, if he wins a second, non-consecutive term in 2024, would end his presidential career at 82-years-old.

President Joe Biden is the oldest president in U.S. history. He was 78 at the time of inauguration (pictured) and would be 86 at the end of a second term if he wins reelection in 2024

While Republicans often incite Reagan as an inspiration, Davis says that her late father would not recognize or approve of the political landscape today.

‘I wonder if you could reflect on today’s politics,’ Welker posed to Davis. ‘What do you think your father would say about our current state of politics?’

‘I think he’d be appalled, really, you know?’ Davis said of Reagan, who was president from 1981 to 1989.

‘It was just more civilized,’ she said of the political world of yesteryear. ‘And he didn’t understand lack of civility. He didn’t understand attacking another person.’

‘I mean, he could be, you know, pretty pointed in what he would say about someone else,’ the actress and author added of her father. ‘But he didn’t understand cruelty. And that’s what we’re dealing with now.’

‘I think he wouldn’t understand that. I think he would be really scared for our democracy.’

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