Former President Donald Trump has called for President Joe Biden to take a drug test before their upcoming presidential debates. Trump claimed that Biden appeared to be under the influence during his State of the Union address.
Trump and Biden have agreed to participate in two televised debates, scheduled for June and September. Biden requested that the debates be held without a live audience and be hosted by a limited number of networks. However, during the Minnesota Republican Party’s Lincoln Reagan Dinner in St. Paul, Minnesota, Trump outlined his own conditions.
“I’m going to demand a drug test here, by the way,” Trump stated. “I don’t want him coming in like the State of the Union. He was high as a kite. I said, ‘Is that Joe up there, that beautiful room?’”
Trump on debating Biden: “I am going to demand a drug test, I really am. I don’t want him coming in like the State of the Union, he was high as a kite”
We don’t deserve him 🤣
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) May 18, 2024
Ron Klain, former White House chief of staff, who will assist Biden with debate preparations, did not comment to Politico on whether drug testing would be part of the preparation.
The presidential debates are set for June 27 on CNN and September 10 on ABC News. Biden issued the debate challenge to Trump on Wednesday.
“Donald Trump lost two debates to me in 2020,” Biden said. “Since then, he hasn’t shown up for a debate. Now he’s acting like he wants to debate me again. Well, make my day, pal, I’ll even do it twice.”
Republican North Carolina Representative Greg Murphy, co-chair of the GOP Doctors Caucus, also suggested on Fox Business that Biden might have been under the influence during the State of the Union, noting that he “screamed for two hours.”
“I absolutely believe that from a medical viewpoint and actually have a little bit of good knowledge that that happened,” Murphy said. “He can’t stand, and he can’t stand under the lights for that long, and I don’t think he can keep a concept in his brain that long.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.