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Agence France-Presse

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday he will call for a “drug test” for himself and Joe Biden before the first presidential debate, but did not offer any evidence for his suspicions about his Democratic opponent.
Trump said in an interview with the Washington Examiner that he was intrigued by Biden’s improved performance during the Democratic primary.
“We’re going to call for a drug test,” Trump said, expressing surprise at the former vice-president’s bearing during the last debate against Vermont senator Bernie Sanders in March.
The president has no concrete evidence to support his claims, but, he said, “all I can tell you is that I’m pretty good at this stuff.
“I watched him in the debates with all of the different people,” Trump said, referring to the other Democratic presidential hopefuls.

Biden was “close to incompetent, if not incompetent, and against Bernie, he was normal,” Trump continued. “I say, ‘How does that happen?’”
Trump made similar remarks in the fall of 2016, at the peak of the presidential race, positing that then-opponent Hillary Clinton had taken drugs.
“I think we should take a drug test prior to the debate,” he said during a rally in New Hampshire.
“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 added, mockingly.
Trump’s health has also been a focus of Democratic speculation after he appeared to raise a water glass and walk down a ramp with difficulty. Trump has also boasted repeatedly of his performance on a cognitive skills test and challenged Biden to do the same.
The first debate between Trump and Biden is scheduled for September 29. The two subsequent ones will take place on October 15 and 22.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg


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The first debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden is scheduled for September 29. Photo: AFP

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US President Donald Trump uses both hands to drink water while touting his foreign policy accomplishments during his trip to Asia. Photo: EPA

U.S. President Donald Trump takes a drink of water while delivering remarks on his recent 11-day Asia trip in the Diplomatic Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2017. Trump said Chinese President Xi Jinping recognizes that a nuclear North Korea is a grave threat to China, and we agreed we would not accept a freeze-for-freeze agreement. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

U.S. President Donald Trump reaches for a bottle of water while delivering remarks on his recent 11-day Asia trip in the Diplomatic Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2017. Trump said Chinese President Xi Jinping recognizes that a nuclear North Korea is a grave threat to China, and we agreed we would not accept a freeze-for-freeze agreement. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

President Donald Trump looks for a bottle of water as he talks about his trip to Asia in the Diplomatic Room of the White House, Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2017, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

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US President Donald Trump has said he took a difficult cognitive test that is ‘actually not that easy. But for me it was easy’. Photo: Bloomberg

(FILES)(COMBO) This combination of file photos shows US President Donald Trump(L) speaking to the media prior to departing from the White House in Washington, DC, on March 3, 2020, and Democratic presidential hopeful and former Vice President Joe Biden at a Nevada Caucus watch party on February 22, 2020, in Las Vegas, Nevada, during the Nevada caucuses. - President Donald Trump assailed likely opponent Joe Biden as "not competent" to lead the country, speaking as polls over the weekend showed deepening voter disenchantment with his own handling of the coronavirus pandemic. "He's shot, he's mentally shot," Trump said about Biden in a wide-ranging interview with "Fox News Sunday on July 19, 2020. He said that if Biden is elected on November 3, he would "destroy this country."Trump made several unfounded or highly speculative accusations against the former vice president, saying he would "triple your taxes" and "defund the police." (Photos by SAUL LOEB and Ronda Churchill / AFP)

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S. on Wednesday, July 22, 2020. Trump administration officials and Senate Republicans are discussing a short-term extension of unemployment insurance, as lawmakers and the White House appear unlikely to reach a broader stimulus deal before the benefits lapse. Photographer: Sarah Silbiger/UPI/Bloomberg

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Trump believes Biden’s performance improved in the final Democratic debate and suspects drug use
Trump took a similar tactic in 2016, accusing rival Hillary Clinton of ‘getting pumped up’



The US president has regularly suggested that his Democratic challenger is somehow mentally impaired.


US Politics

Donald Trump

Drugs

Joe Biden