Following this year’s State of the Union address, many analysts questioned whether or not President Biden had been under the influence of some sort of stimulants when he took the stage. Many have referred to him as “jacked up Joe” during that performance. No proof of this has been offered, but now that the candidates have agreed to participate in two debates this year, Donald Trump isn’t taking any chances. Yesterday he demanded that Joe Biden be drug tested prior to the debate, with the results to be released to the public. This raises a number of questions, and the Biden campaign has yet to respond to the demand. (NY Post)
Donald Trump demanded on Friday that Joe Biden be drug tested ahead of the two presidential debates both candidates have agreed to participate in.
The former president cited the incumbent’s State of the Union address in March in his call for drug testing, alleging that Biden was “high as a kite” when he delivered the speech.
“I just want to debate this guy, but you know – and I’m gonna demand a drug test too, by the way,” Trump told Republicans during a speech at a GOP dinner in St. Paul, Minn.
If Biden refuses to do this, there isn’t much that Trump could do about it. Nobody, including elected officials or candidates, can be forced to release their private medical records, although they are free to do so voluntarily. Of course, mandatory drug testing is nothing unusual. Professional and collegiate athletes have to agree to do this all the time, as do members of the military and a variety of other professions. But this would apparently be the first time that such a thing would be made a requirement for a political debate.
No matter the response, such a requirement would have to apply to all participants equally. Donald Trump has not yet said that he would submit to a drug test ahead of the debate, though he hasn’t refused to do it either. Further, the results of the tests likely wouldn’t have any impact on whether or not the debate moved forward. A typical pre-employment drug test using a urine sample typically takes one to five days for the results to come back. If either Biden or Trump were being given any sort of “enhancers” in advance, the test would probably have to be done within a couple of hours of the event to be effective.
It’s also worth considering what sort of results might come back from such testing, particularly where Joe Biden is concerned. What could be done with the results? It might show that Uncle Joe had been given a bunch of Red Bull or other caffeinated beverages, but what of it? Who among us hasn’t downed an extra cup of coffee when we were forced to work late from time to time? (These debates will obviously take place well past Joe’s normal bedtime.) It’s highly unlikely that Biden would be given any sort of controlled substance unless his doctor prescribed it for him. But even then, there are currently no rules against medical enhancements in debates. A positive test result would no doubt provide more fodder for the cable news channels to talk about Biden’s diminished cognitive capacity, but the debate would still be registered in the minds of all the viewers.
When we take all these things into consideration, this seems like a losing play for Donald Trump and an almost certain win for Biden. The demand makes for a few interesting political headlines this week, but that’s about it. If Biden refuses to submit to the test, there’s nothing Trump could do other than cancel his participation. That’s a win for Biden because he will be able to say that he agreed to debates but Trump backed out. If he agrees to the test and it comes back negative, that’s also a talking point his team will use to shoot down speculation about the President’s cognitive decline. And if it comes back showing that Biden legally took some sort of stimulant, they will shrug their shoulders and say that it’s not a big deal because many people do the same for a variety of legal reasons.
As an exit question, I’ll ask whether or not this drug testing demand might be Trump’s way of trying to back out of the debates. Could it be that he was anticipating that Biden would refuse to debate him so he could bash him about that on the campaign trail and now he doesn’t want to go through with it? That doesn’t sound right to me because I’m confident that Trump could run rings around Biden on a debate stage any day of the week and I’m betting Trump believes that as well. So perhaps this was simply an ill-considered stunt. If so, it will probably backfire unless Biden refuses to take the test, which would be his worst option politically.