In the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump suggested that Hillary Clinton might be on performance-enhancing drugs. Four years later, the Republican was even more aggressive in pushing the line that Joe Biden might also have been on performance-enhancing drugs.
Asked at a White House press briefing whether this line of attack was an attempt at humor, the then-president replied, “No, I’m not joking.”
Last month, the Republican rolled out the same line yet again, though Trump has apparently decided it’s time to add a new twist to the stale nonsense. When the presumptive GOP nominee sat down with conservative host Hugh Hewitt yesterday, for example, Trump suggested that the incumbent Democratic president might actually be on cocaine.
No, seriously. As the transcript showed, the former president and the host were talking about possible general-election debates when Trump volunteered an idea.
“I think what happened is, you know, that white stuff that they happened to find, which happened to be cocaine in the White House, I don’t know, I think something’s going on there, because I watched this State of the Union, and he was all jacked up at the beginning. By the end, he was fading fast. There’s something going on there. I want to debate. And I think debates, with him, at least, should be drug-tested. I want a drug test.”
When the host explicitly asked the Republican whether he was suggesting that Biden was “using cocaine,” Trump replied, “I don’t know what he’s using, but that was not, hey, he was higher than a kite.”
Moments later, the former president added that he believes it’s “obvious” that the incumbent president is “being helped” in some way, as evidenced by the ways in which Biden was “all jacked up” during the State of the Union address.
So, a few things.
First, given recent reports on rampant drug abuse in the Trump White House, this is probably an issue that the Republican ought to avoid.
Second, before the State of the Union address, the former president and his allies characterized Biden as a semi-comatose dementia patient, sleepwalking through the West Wing. After the Democrat delivered a strong and well-received speech, the smart thing for Republicans would’ve been to say, “Perhaps we lowered expectations a bit too much.” Trump, instead, found it more convenient to make assumptions about cocaine use — and then shared those assumptions with a broadcast audience. And finally, whether the former president realizes this or not, there’s a benefit to candidates making accusations that are grounded and believable. If Trump, for example, wants to blame Biden for inflation and border crossings, it’s likely that many voters, especially those unfamiliar with policy details, would be persuaded. But for the former president to suggest that his successor might be on cocaine is so utterly bonkers, it makes the accuser look far worse than the accused. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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