Insinuating that his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, was drugged during his sometimes awkward and irregular political debates earlier this year, President Donald Trump has demanded that the former vice president undergo a drug test either prior to or after their presidential debate this Tuesday.
Though it’s not the first time Trump has accused Biden of being on drugs, this most recent accusation comes as Trump continues to fall behind Biden in national polling.
Trump must also confront the possibility of becoming the third U.S. president in the last four decades to lose a bid for re-election for a second four-year term.
Read More: Joe Biden leading President Trump in swing state polls
“I will be strongly demanding a DRUG TEST of Sleepy Joe Biden prior to, or after, the Debate on Tuesday night,” Trump said in a Twitter post today.
“Naturally, I will agree to take one also. His Debate performances have been record setting UNEVEN, to put it mildly. Only drugs could have caused this discrepancy???”
Biden participated in a series of debates with other Democratic presidential nominees that began in late 2019 and extended into 2020. He seemed unsure and somewhat “out of it” when he was up against 10 others and had to stand on the debate stage for long stretches of time.
However, he seemed to have found his voice and gave a strong performance in a one-on-one debate against Vermont Senator, Bernie Sanders last March.
According to VOA, Trump criticized Biden’s debate performances just last month when he said, “I mean, you saw some of those debates with the large number of people on the stage. He was — I mean, I used to say, ‘How is it possible that he can even go forward?'”
“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.”
Read More: Biden says he’s ready to debate Trump: ‘I know how to handle bullies’
Despite 74-year-old Trump’s frequent jabs regarding the mental acuity of 77-year-old Biden, the president doesn’t seem to rattle Biden. The former vice president typically laughs when Trump’s claims he’s “over-the-hill” and promises to match Trump and more in a debate.
Trump and Biden are scheduled to debate three times in the next month, beginning with this Tuesday’s 90-minute session in Cleveland, Ohio, moderated by Chris Wallace of Fox News.
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