I wonder if the Biden campaign timed Republican ex-Congressman Adam Kinzinger’s endorsement this close to the debate— Kinzinger voted impeach Trump after the attempted coup, and after voting for him against Biden just a few weeks earlier— probably wasn't a coincidence. Yesterday, emphasizing that he’s still a “proud conservative,” he’s “always put democracy and our Constitution above all else and it’s because of my unwavering support for democracy that today, as a proud conservative, I’m endorsing Joe Biden for reelection. My entire life has been guided by the conviction that America is a beacon of liberty, freedom and democracy. So while I certainly don't agree with President Biden on everything, and I never thought I'd be endorsing a Democrat for president, I know that he will always protect the very thing that makes America the best country in the world: our democracy. Donald Trump poses a direct threat to every fundamental American value. He doesn’t care about our country. He doesn’t care about you. He only cares about himself. To every American of every political party and those of none, I say now is not the time to watch quietly as Donald Trump threatens the future of America. Now is the time to unite behind Joe Biden and show Donald Trump off the stage once and for all.”
Deranged Trump/QAnon spokesperson, Marjorie Traitor Greene, responded on behalf of MAGA:
Meanwhile, as the most projectionist politician in America has done before, Trump is claiming that his own flaws belong to his opponent. As he did with Hillary in 2016, he is now claiming that the performance-enhancing drugs he uses, are used by Biden. How do I know he uses performance-enhancing drugs? An old friend of mine worked for a firm that bought the practice of one of the doctors Trump was seeing for a matter unrelated to these drugs. BUT the friendly employees of the firm were getting him the Adderall as an extra bonus service, or, if my memory serves me well, showing him how to chop it up and snort it.
Yesterday, Hannah Knowles reported that Trump accused Hillary of being “suspiciously ‘pumped up’ at a presidential debate and said she should take a drug test before the next one. Four years later, Trump demanded the same of Joe Biden, suggesting at a 2020 rally that a ‘big fat shot in the ass’ of some unknown substance would allow Biden to debate ‘better than ever before.’ Now… Trump has taken the baseless accusation to new heights— accusing the president of being ‘higher than a kite’ during his high-energy State of Union address this year and taking every opportunity to undercut a potentially energetic performance from his opponent. ‘DRUG TEST FOR CROOKED JOE BIDEN??? I WOULD, ALSO, IMMEDIATELY AGREE TO ONE!!!’ Trump wrote on social media this week. Campaign staff, Republican lawmakers and online influencers have all amplified the idea that Biden will need an injection to debate, with one Trump adviser even sharing a video of a syringe... Trump and his supporters have spread the baseless claim widely, as some Republicans worry openly that the bar for Biden’s performance Thursday has been set too low... Trump is trying to preempt a disconnect between the energetic Biden who will show up onstage and the ‘brain-dead zombie’ that Trump’s campaign has portrayed at every turn.”
“Donald Trump has never admitted losing anything in his life, and when he does lose, he always cries fraud,” said Democratic campaign strategist Joshua Karp, who compared Trump’s claims about drugs to his false claims the 2020 election was rigged. He said Trump is “confusing his conspiracy theory-loving base with the entire electorate.”
Lauren Hitt, a spokesperson for Biden’s campaign, said in a statement that Trump is “so scared of being held accountable for his toxic agenda” that “he and his allies are resorting to desperate, obviously false lies.”
Trump has a long history of making baseless and false claims with impunity: The Washington Post Fact Checker documented more than 30,000 false or misleading claims from Trump during his presidency. Campaigning for a second term, Trump has continued to make inaccurate claims at rallies and blasted out incendiary emails about his opponent, at one point falsely saying that Biden was “locked & loaded ready to take [him] out” during an FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
Trump and his allies have spent the campaign questioning Biden’s physical and mental capacity, suggesting that he can barely walk or stand and sharing videos of Biden’s appearances that are sometimes edited in misleading ways.
At a rally this past weekend in Philadelphia— his last public event scheduled ahead of the debate— Trump did not discount Biden.
“I’m sure he’ll be prepared,” he said, right before bringing up drugs.
“Whatever happened to all that cocaine that was missing a month ago from the White House?” he said. “Whatever happened?” Trump also repeated his crude comment from 2020, telling the crowd that Biden was resting and then “a little before debate time, he gets a shot in the ass.”
…Republicans have floated the idea of Biden’s taking performance-enhancing drugs for months— particularly after the president’s State of the Union speech in March, which Biden allies hoped would help address doubts about his age.
The allegations of drug use have even drawn skepticism from some commentators who are often deferential to Trump.
“I just want to say, look. These are obviously very serious charges, that he’s jacked up. We don’t know that, we’re not doctors. We have no idea,” Fox host Maria Bartiromo said on her show in May, after Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL, a pardoned Brooklyn bankroller and drug dealer) described Biden as “jacked up” at the State of the Union and said “the American people need to understand if they’re giving him some injection.”
Still, the claims have gotten extensive news coverage in the lead-up to the CNN debate. Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX), who served as White House physician under Trump, made headlines with a formal letter to Biden demanding a drug test.Good new ad... they should run it during the debate tonight
Good new ad... they should run it during the debate tonight
Trump is also preparing for the debate by discrediting the moderators and whining that the rules are rigged against him “aiming to redirect expectations and delegitimize the process as he heads into the first of two crucial debates this presidential cycle... Trump’s playbook to discredit the process to his supporters goes beyond the debates. For years, starting with his 2016 campaign for president, he worked to discredit the media by calling out media outlets and journalists and falsely calling the press the ‘enemy of the people.’”
Also, everyone knows he has a long history of Adderall abuse. And while Trump is figuring out what the right dosage of his drug cocktail is for this evening, Biden has a drug story too: HHS Announces Cost Savings for 64 Prescription Drugs. For Americans on Medicare, this will be a bonanza
