Donald Trump has repeated his demand that Joe Biden take a drug test before the United States presidential candidates debate on live television, saying the president was “high as a kite” when he made a State of the Union speech in March.
This week, Mr Biden agreed to debate Mr Trump on June 27 and Sept 10. The Republican has a narrow lead in the polls.
“He’s acting like he wants to debate me again. Well, make my day, pal,” Mr Biden said, adding that he had beaten Mr Trump in their debates before the 2020 presidential election.
Speaking at a dinner in Minnesota on Friday night, Mr Trump said he was up for the debate.
“I just want to debate this guy, but you know – and I’m gonna demand a drug test too, by the way,” Mr Trump, 77, told Republicans at the dinner.
“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,” he said, adding, “We’re going to demand a drug test.”
Mr Trump did not say whether he would also take a drug test before the televised debates.
The claim that Mr Biden, 81, was on drugs during his State of the Union address has become a talking point among the US Right wing – despite being based on no evidence.
On Thursday, Greg Murphy, a Republican and urologist, accused the president of being “jacked up on something that day”.
“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,” he said on Fox News.
Sean Hannity, the Fox News host, has also called Mr Biden “hyper-caffeinated”.
It is not the first time that Mr Trump has demanded that Mr Biden take a drug test.
He claimed that Mr Biden had been “uneven” during the Democratic primaries in 2020. He said he would be “strongly demanding” a drug test before their debates ahead of the race for the White House that year.
“Vice-President Biden intends to deliver his debate answers in words. If the president thinks his best case is made in urine he can have at it,” Kate Bedingfield, Mr Biden’s deputy campaign manager, responded at the time.
“We’d expect nothing less from Donald Trump, who p—-d away the chance to protect the lives of 200K Americans when he didn’t make a plan to stop Covid-19.”
Neither of the two men underwent drug tests in the end.