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With only two days left of the Republican National Convention, both presidential candidates are preparing for the highly anticipated presidential debates.
The first debate between Trump and Biden is set for September 29th and now Trump is calling for both himself and Democratic nominee Joe Biden to be screened for performance enhancing drugs ahead of each debate.
Trump implied that Biden had taken performance enhancing drugs that subsequently improved his performance in the Democratic primary debates, according to the Washington Examiner.
Nobody thought that [Biden] was even going to win, because his debate performances were so bad. 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."
When asked to elaborate, Trump continued:
"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."
This reflects the right's continued unfounded contention that Biden is somehow in decline, to which Biden has challenged Trump to "Watch me." Trump is the one, after all, who felt he had to tout how well he did on an easy cognitive test and regularly has issues pronouncing words in prepared speeches.
This is not the first time Trump has pulled this ploy, however. Back in 2016, Trump famously said after their second debate:
"I think we should take a drug test prior to the debate. We should take a drug test prior because I don't know what's going on with her."
Needless to say, that never happened.
People were swift to pummel Trump for the ridiculous challenge.
This is pathetic. And disgusting. https://t.co/N74diQTTHl
— Jonathan Bernstein (@jbview) August 26, 2020
Is it us, or does it sound like President Trump doesn't want to debate Joe Biden? https://t.co/ABpCxOxo7m
— Young America for Biden & Harris (@YAFBiden) August 26, 2020
Projection. It's always projection with this guy. https://t.co/Vi97CZ9uXB pic.twitter.com/Wg23xeISNs
— David F. Warner (@dwarnersoc) August 26, 2020
Although not everyone was against it.
I'm for it! While we're at it, how about the White House releases the medical reports from the Saturday afternoon in November when the president was rushed to Walter Reed for evaluation. What happened that day? https://t.co/SCOSctMmrx
— Jonathan Reiner (@JReinerMD) August 26, 2020
Trump cannot understand that ppl can learn from experience.
He must really be nervous. https://t.co/8uVhTI0XDN
— Truzenzuzex (@truzenuzex) August 26, 2020
I wonder what would ever give Trump the idea that drugs are necessary to coherently give a speech? Hhhmmm... https://t.co/iGy6koR8e1
— Tanya (@tgreene319) August 26, 2020
Others reminded their followers that this was not the first time he had issued such a challenge.
Trump said a similar thing when he was competing against Hillary Clinton.
"We should take a drug test prior, because I don't know what's going on with her," he said.https://t.co/keYQbIIH5T https://t.co/GGYAk0tox3
— Francesca Chambers (@fran_chambers) August 26, 2020
Another repetition of his 2016 playbook: https://t.co/1Mp3HRKYPe https://t.co/yEHFby4wMX
— Jill Colvin (@colvinj) August 26, 2020
2016 on repeat. https://t.co/uw9y2yvD6U
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) August 26, 2020