Former president Donald Trump said Friday he would demand President Joe Biden take a drug test before they debate, claiming Biden was high while giving the State of the Union address.
Trump and Biden agreed this week to two face off in two televised debates, first in June and then again in September.
Biden stipulated that the debates should take place without a live audience and should only be hosted by a handful of networks, but during the Minnesota Republican Party’s Lincoln Reagan Dinner in St. Paul, Minnesota, Trump put forward his own terms.
“I’m going to demand a drug test here, by the way,” Trump said.
“I don’t want him coming in like the State of the Union,” Trump said. “He was high as a kite. I said, ‘Is that Joe up there, that beautiful room?”
Former White House chief of staff Ron Klain, who will help Biden with debate prep, did not tell Politico whether drugs would be part of the preparation.
The two presidential debates will be held June 27 on CNN and Sept. 10 on ABC News. Biden challenged Trump to the debate 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 Rep. Greg Murphy, co-chair of the GOP Doctors Caucus, also said Thursday on Fox Business that Biden “must have been jacked up on something” during the State of the Union, pointing out 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 told Bartiromo. “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.
President Donald J. Trump’s FULL Speech At The Minnesota GOP Annual Dinner pic.twitter.com/WC7sht0yp3
— Dillon Fillion (@DillonFillionIA) May 19, 2024
