Nothing pisses people off quite like telling them a truth they don’t want to hear. That’s exactly what GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley just did with her remarks about President Joe Biden ’s advanced age and the prospect that, if he’s reelected, we could end up with Vice President Kamala Harris as president.

“[Biden] announced that he’s running again in 2024, and I think that we can all be very clear and say with a matter of fact that if you vote for Joe Biden, you really are counting on a President Harris because the idea that he would make it until 86 years old is not something that I think is likely,” Haley said in a Fox News interview.

Democrats viciously attacked Haley over these remarks.

“Nikki Haley has kickstarted the race to the bottom for the GOP,” former Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) tweeted . “Her comments are more than disrespectful, they are disgusting, appalling and unbefitting a candidate for the highest office in the land. Sadly this is where the GOP is today — personal attacks with no substance. This is just the beginning of the vile comments that we can expect as the 2024 campaign goes forward and Joe Biden continues to gain momentum.”

Many others were similarly outraged:

But all this outrage is baseless. There’s honestly nothing wrong with what Haley said.

To be clear, she did not wish ill health on the president. Haley simply pointed out that it is likely a president of such an advanced age could die and that, if this tragically were to occur, Biden's deeply unpopular vice president, Harris, would become president.

That’s simply a fact. And it’s not beyond the pale in any way to ask people to consider whether they want a vice presidential candidate to become president — because that’s exactly what vice presidents exist to do. Their function as a second-string quarterback is the most important part of the job!

Some have tried to argue that Haley’s assertion, even if true, is impolite. It’s hard to take this critique too seriously at a time when our discourse has been so thoroughly coarsened with much more offensive statements than this. But still, civility is an important goal we should aspire to in our politics. Yet telling the truth about a matter of core public interest isn’t impolite unless it’s done in a needlessly cruel or inflammatory way, which Haley’s remarks weren’t.

Other critics say that Haley’s claim is actually wrong as a matter of fact. They point to Social Security actuarial tables suggesting that, on average, an 82-year-old male can expect to live 6.77 more years, meaning Biden would make it through a second term. However, even those figures acknowledge a 34% chance of death before age 85. That’s a high enough probability that it shouldn’t be beyond the pale or impolite to discuss the ramifications of such an eventuality.

And those figures describe a generic statistical average. They do not directly apply to Biden. While we all wish him the best health, regardless of our political differences, he has quite clearly lost many steps.

These are the facts. If reelected, Biden would be 82 years old upon taking office. Anyone of that age, let alone someone with such a demanding and stressful job, could die at any time. If Biden dies while in office, Harris will become president. Most people do not want that.

Haley politely pointed out this fact. She’s being viciously attacked for it. Why? Because the truth hurts.

Brad Polumbo ( @Brad_Polumbo ) is a libertarian-conservative journalist and the co-founder of BASEDPolitics .