Trump calls for Biden to take a drug test before upcoming presidential debate

WASHINGTON D.C. - President Trump said Sunday that he demanded his Democratic opponent Joe Biden take a drug test either directly before or after the upcoming presidential debate this week.

Trump, who tweeted the message shortly before 10 a.m., said he would also agree to a drug test if Biden agrees. The president said drugs could only explain Biden's uneven debate performances in the past.

“I will be strongly demanding a Drug Test of Sleepy Joe Biden prior to, or after, the Debate on Tuesday night. Naturally, I will agree to take one also. His Debate performances have been record setting UNEVEN, to put it mildly. Only drugs could have caused this discrepancy???” Trump wrote.

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The remarks come after Biden’s team recently told The Guardian they’re hoping for a repeat of his stand-out, high energy 2012 debate performance against then-vice presidential opponent Paul Ryan, which helped reinvigorate President Obama’s election campaign at the time. Biden’s record since then has been marred by repeated verbal gaffes during his 2020 presidential campaign tour.

In an exclusive interview with “Fox & Friends,” which aired earlier Sunday, Trump said he was preparing every day for the upcoming debate against Biden to be held Tuesday night in Cleveland, Ohio.

"When you're president, you sort of see everything that they're going to be asking. And they may disagree with you, but we've done a great job. We created the greatest economy in history," Trump said in an interview with Fox News’ Pete Hegseth after nominating Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. "And now it's coming back. We closed it. We saved millions and millions of lives by doing what I did. And now we're bringing it back."

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Biden has called on the Senate not to act on Trump’s Supreme Court nomination until after voters head to the polls in November. He also has ramped up attacks against Barrett, who he described “as a jurist with a written track record of disagreeing with the court’s decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act.”

“In the middle of a pandemic, Donald Trump is trying to force through the confirmation of a Justice who will help him destroy Obamacare,” Biden tweeted Saturday. “Health care is at stake. Protections for pre-existing conditions are at stake. We can't let them win.”

The first presidential debate will be moderated by Fox News' Chris Wallace and will cover both candidates' records, the Supreme Court, the coronavirus pandemic, the economy, race and violence in cities, and the integrity of the election.

In several follow-up tweets Sunday, Trump also responded to attacks from Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee and said a day earlier he would not confirm Barrett or any nominee proposed “as part of this illegitimate sham process, barely one month before an election as Americans are already casting their votes.”

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Trump said Blumenthal repeatedly lied about serving in the Vietnam War, calling him a “senatorial JOKE,” and also railed against Mike Bloomberg for “bribing ex-prisoners to go out and vote for Sleepy Joe.” Before ended his tweetstorm, Trump declared: “Obamacare will be replaced with a MUCH better, and FAR cheaper, alternative if it is terminated in the Supreme Court. Would be a big WIN for the USA!”

Fox News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report.