Former President Donald Trump on Friday said President Biden should be tested for drugs ahead of their upcoming debates, renewing similar calls he made in 2020.
Mr. Trump told a crowd at a GOP dinner in Minnesota that he wanted to test the president for substances following his State of the Union address in March.
“I just want to debate this guy, but you know — and I’m gonna demand a drug test too, by the way,” the former president said. “I am. No, I really am. I don’t want him coming in like the State of the Union. He was high as a kite.”
This wasn’t the first time he made such a call. During the 2020 campaign he requested that his opponent get tested before they sparred on stage after what Mr. Trump called Mr. Biden’s “uneven performances” in the Democratic primary debates.
Neither Mr. Biden nor Mr. Trump took drug tests ahead of debates during that election cycle.
Conservatives have criticized Mr. Biden’s performance during his March 7 speech in front of both chambers of Congress, contending that he looked “jacked up.” Republican Rep. Greg Murphy, a urologist from North Carolina, accused Mr. Biden of being “on something” during the address but gave little evidence as to what the president could have ingested.
“I believe they gave him something to help him sustain the lights and sustain the vigor that he had,” Mr. Murphy told Fox News this week. “That was not Joe Biden. I was in there. He screamed for two hours.”
Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump will debate June 27 and Sept. 10.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.