Trump challenges Biden to 'drug test' before debates, suggests 2020 rival may be using mind-enhancers
President Donald Trump, on Wednesday, August 26, suggested that his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, may be taking mind-enhancing drugs. Trump also called for tests to be conducted on Biden before he faces off with the Democratic nominee at the first presidential debate next month. The president made the statement while speaking to the Washington Examiner, adding that he was making the suggestion considering his supposed improved debate performance in March against Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
Trump, however, did not offer any evidence to support his claims against the former vice president other than saying: "I am good at this stuff."
"Nobody thought that he was even going to win. Because his debate performances were so bad," Trump said from the Oval Office. "Frankly, his best performance was against Bernie. We're going to call for a drug test, by the way, because his best performance was against Bernie. It wasn't that he was Winston Churchill, because he wasn't, but it was a normal, boring debate. You know, nothing amazing happened. And we are going to call for a drug test, because there's no way — you can't do that."
Trump was referring to the March debates after Biden's impressive performance during the Democratic primaries' Super Tuesday round on March 3. Sanders, before then, had been leading Biden in pledged candidates. After Biden's Super Tuesday performance, many of the Democratic Party's crowded field dropped out of the White House race and endorsed the former vice president, including Senator Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, and Beto O'Rourke. Biden won 10 primaries on Super Tuesday while Sanders picked up just four states that evening. The duo then faced off each other in a series of one-on-one debates.
The president, while referring to those debates, stated: "I don't know how he could have been so incompetent in his debate performances and then all of a sudden be OK against Bernie. My point is, if you go back and watch some of those numerous debates, he was so bad. He wasn't even coherent. And against Bernie, he was. And we're calling for a drug test."
The Biden campaign told Fox News that the former vice president wasn't on any drugs during the debates and blasted Trump as a liar.
"We know it’s unbelievable to Donald Trump, but Joe Biden can speak honestly without a shot of truth serum," campaign spokesman Andrew Bates said. "We’d like to see Trump do the same," he added.
Biden and Trump are set to have three debates before the presidential election on November 3. They will square off for the first time at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland on September 29. This is not the first time Trump has accused a political rival of taking drugs before a debate. The Republican, ahead of the 2016 presidential polls, had suggested that this then-Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, had been "getting pumped up" before their debates. He had also challenged her to take a drug test before their final live TV encounter. The Clinton campaign, at the time, however, had brushed off his challenge.
Trump, while talking of the upcoming debates, said: "Well, it is a prizefight. It's no different from the gladiators, except we have to use our brain and our mouth. And our body to stand. I want all standing - they want to sit down." The three debates are set to take place in Cleveland, Ohio, on 29 September; in Miami, Florida, on 15 October; and Nashville, Tennessee, on 22 October.