President Donald Trump has called for himself and Democratic challenger Joe Biden to submit to drug tests before their first debate next month.
Trump told the Washington Examiner, a conservative news company, he noticed a sudden improvement in Biden’s performances during Democratic debates on TV. However, Trump did not offer any evidence as to how he reached this conclusion or what Biden might have been using.
When asked what made him believe Biden was taking something, Trump only said: “I’m pretty good at this stuff.”
On Wednesday Trump said Biden “wasn’t even coherent” in some of the 11 live TV debates during the Democratic primary season last summer.
However, by March 15, when Biden debated Bernie Sanders, the only candidate left, he appeared to have more energy and fight.
“I don’t know how he [Mr Biden] could have been so incompetent in his debate performances and then all of a sudden be OK against Bernie,” Trump told the Examiner.
The three presidential debates will take place in Cleveland, Ohio, on Sept. 29; in Miami, Florida, on Oct.15; and Nashville, Tennessee, on Oct. 22.
Trump did the same to Hillary Clinton in 2016 saying she had been “getting pumped up” before their debates and challenged her to take a drug test ahead of their final live TV encounter. The Clinton campaign largely ignored his challenge.
“It wasn’t that he was Winston Churchill because he wasn’t, but it was a normal, boring debate, Trump added. “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 also compared the debates to a boxing match.
“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.”
Trump asked to have more debates but the Commission on Presidential Debates declined. He then asked for the first debate to be held earlier for the benefit of early voters, but was again rebuffed.
Biden and Trump, both in their 70s, have recently traded barbs saying the other has dementia and their mental capacity has slowed.