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Republicans are now warning that in Thursday night’s debate, President Joe Biden could gain an advantage by using the most addictive and illicit substance known to man … a can of energy drink.
“No one expects that Joe Biden will be on cocaine,” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said during an interview on CNN. Instead, Johnson suggested that Biden will be hopped up on “energy drinks or something.”
Johnson brushed aside repeated Republican claims that Biden might be taking illicit drugs, saying that “there’s a lot of things that are said in jest.” Because it’s really funny when Trump accuses the president of using cocaine and one of Johnson’s House Republicans doubles down on calls for drug testing before the debate.
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Trump has been dropping accusations about Biden using cocaine into his social media messages and rally speeches for months.
He has also been playing up less than a gram of cocaine found in the area where visitors drop off personal goods before entering the White House in 2023 and turning it into a lie that Biden stole “hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cocaine.”
“He’s going to be so pumped up. He’s going to be pumped up,” Trump told a rally crowd in Wisconsin. “You know, all that stuff that was missing about a month ago from the White House? What happened? Who left it? Somebody left it. … I wonder who that could have been. I don’t know, actually. I think it was Joe!”
Trump also told a rally in Philadelphia that Biden would get “a shot in the ass” so that he would come out on stage “all jacked up, right? All jacked up.”
These claims have been followed up by Trump repeatedly calling for a drug test. That call has been echoed by Rep. Ronny Jackson, the former White House physician, who has sent a letter demanding that Biden submit to tests before and after the debate.
Jackson also joined with other Republicans in accusing Biden of using “performance enhancing drugs” before the State of the Union speech where the president defied Republican expectations by delivering a tough, energetic, and high intensity performance.
Johnson wants to play nice and dismiss this all as a joke when he’s on CNN. But Trump, Jackson, and a long list of right-wing pundits are spreading this idea every day. With 73% of voters saying they expect to tune in to the debate, this could be one of the most consequential events in the history of American politics. Republicans need a way to both downplay Biden’s performance, while explaining why he’s not the dementia-addled zombie they’ve been presenting to their supporters on right-wing media. After telling their voters that Biden is completely out of it for months, Republicans are worried about people seeing a candidate who is alert and on top of the issues.
Too bad there’s no way to test Republicans for an overdose of fear.
Daily Kos will have live coverage of the debate beginning at 9 PM ET.
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