US President Donald Trump suggested he would seek a drug test before his debate with Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, sharing the plan in an Oval Office interview with The Washington Examiner.
Trump offered that he saw a sudden improvement in Biden's debate capability during the primaries, following what the president characterized as earlier performances by Biden that were "so bad".
"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", he told The Washington Examiner.
Trump claimed that what he suggested might be an evolution from "so bad" to "normal", could be through the use of drugs. The US president, in offering how he could back up his claim, only asserted that he is "pretty good at this stuff", noting that any drug test would include both candidates.
"All I can tell you is that I'm pretty good at this stuff," he said. "I look. I watched him in the debates with all of the different people. He was close to incompetent, if not incompetent, and against Bernie, he was normal [...] and I say, 'How does that happen?'"
POTUS remarked that he came up with his idea of drug testing after an unidentified person purportedly said to him that Biden could be using drugs. Trump added that he does not know whether his allegations contain any truth.
This is not the first time Trump has called for drug testing for a presidential candidate debate, previously asking for a drug test in 2015 following his second debate with Dem candidate Hillary Clinton. No tests were conducted at the time.
“We should take a drug test prior because I don’t know what’s going on with her. But at the beginning of her last debate — she was all pumped up at the beginning, and at the end it was like, ‘Oh, take me down.’ She could barely reach her car", he said in 2016.
Trump will face Biden in their first debate on 29 September. Two more are scheduled for October. As the race for the Oval Office ramps up in light of the upcoming 3 November election, the Trump campaign has repeatedly adopted the strategy of questioning Biden's cognitive abilities, attacking him particularly for past slips of tongue.
