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Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden will have three live TV debates
US President Donald Trump has called on himself and Democratic challenger Joe Biden to submit to drug tests for their first debate next month.
Mr. Trump told the Washington Examiner that he had noticed a sudden improvement in Mr. Biden’s performance in the Democratic TV debates.
The president offered no evidence that his rival could be on drugs other than to say, “I’m pretty good at this stuff.”
Mr Biden and Mr Trump will have three debates ahead of the November 3 election.
Back in 2016, Mr. Trump proposed that his then-Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, be “stopped” for her debates and challenged her to take a drug test prior to her last live TV meeting. The Clinton camp refused his challenge.
On Wednesday, the president – who will deliver his keynote address on Thursday to the ongoing Republican Party convention – made a similar statement, arguing that Mr Biden’s debate skills had been greatly improved in the final debate.
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Mr Trump said the former US vice president was “not even coherent” during some of the 11 live TV debates he competed in the Democratic primary season against a busy field of candidates.
By the time of the last debate on March 15, the field had been broken down to just Mr. Biden and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
Mr. Trump told the Washington Examiner: “I do not know how he [Mr Biden] could have been so incompetent in his debate performances and then suddenly be good against Bernie. “
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He added: “It was not that he was Winston Churchill because he was not, but it was a normal, boring debate.
“You know, nothing great happened. And we’ll call a medical test because there’s no way – you can not do that.”
Mr. Trump said of the debates: “Well, it’s a price question. It’s no different than the gladiators, except we have to use our brains and our mouths. And our bodies have to stand. I want to stand all – they want to sit down. . “
The three presidential debates will take place in Cleveland, Ohio, on September 29; in Miami, Florida, on October 15; and Nashville, Tennessee, on October 22nd.
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Mr. Trump asked to schedule additional debates with Mr. Biden, but the Commission refused presidential debates. He then called for the first debate previously held for the benefit of early voters, again without result.
Both Mr. Trump, 74, and Mr. Biden, 77, have all traded gibberish that the other suffers from dementia.
The Biden team has yet to respond to Mr Trump’s comments.
