Earpieces and Mountain Dew: Republicans Are Desperate to Discredit Biden Before the Debate

Ahead of the first presidential debate, Donald Trump is taking a leaf out of his Election Day playbook and attempting to preemptively discredit a strong performance by President Joe Biden. The former president and his allies have spent the days leading up to the rematch between the 2020 rivals accusing Biden of everything from doping, to secretly using an earpiece, to the unsportsmanlike use of Mountain Dew.

There is no evidence that Biden receives performance enhancing drugs ahead of major public appearances, but Trump’s allies have picked up on the thread regardless.

“How much adderall are they going to give him?” asked Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) during a Thursday morning appearance on Newsmax. “How many vitamins is he gonna be on?”

Other Republicans have taken to describing Biden in the way an exasperated parent might describe their child after an unsupervised trip to a 7/11. He could be hopped up on a “whole gallon of energy drinks,” suggested House Speaker Mike Johnson. Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) suggested that Biden’s staff would “jack him up on Mountain Dew or whatever it is.”

The baseless accusation has even made its way into performative legislation. Earlier this month, Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) announced that the “No Juicing Joe Act,” which would require the White House to “notify Congress when the president takes a drug that could alter his alertness, judgment or mood.”

Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), who previously served as Trump’s personal physician during his time in the White House, has spent the days ahead of the debate demanding that Biden be subjected to a drug test. “Joe Biden was so HOPPED UP ON PEDS at the State of the Union, I could barely recognize him,” he wrote Wednesday. “Biden needs to be drug tested BEFORE AND AFTER the debate!!”

It’s worth pointing out that Jackson was dismissed from the white House in 2019 amid allegations of inappropriate workplace conduct and alcohol abuse while on the job. Under Jackson’s tenure, the White House pharmacy was also accused of operating as an unregulated pill mill for uppers and downers that were handed out like candy to staff, as Rolling Stone reported in March.

“Biden will be on a cocktail of performance enhancers, BUT YOU WILL WIPE THE FLOOR WITH HIM! Looking forward to your BIG WIN on Thursday!!” Jackson wrote on Monday in response to praise from Trump for his anti-doping crusade.

Trump’s allies aren’t only relying on baseless doping allegations to preemptively discredit Biden’s debate performance.

Hardline Trump supporter and former campaign adviser Roger Stone claimed that Biden’s ears need to be checked ahead of the debate for hidden communication devices through which his staff could feed him answers. “No ear pieces! Trump should demand that Biden be carefully inspected to ensure that he is not wearing some deeply embedded high-tech earpiece before the beginning of the CNN debate,” Stone wrote on X.

Trump and his allies have also been attacking CNN, the debate moderators, and the debate’s structure as unfairly biased towards Biden. It bears remembering that Trump’s campaign agreed to all of the conditions set by CNN.

“There’s two [of] us and two of them — it’s like death,” Trump complained of the debate format during his rally in Philadelphia. During the same speech he dubbed co-moderator Jake Tapper as “Fake Tapper” and mocked the pronunciation of fellow arbitrator Dana Bash’s name.

On Monday, CNN host Kasie Hunt booted Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt from an on-air interview after Leavitt repeatedly attacked Tapper. “We’re going to stop this interview if you keep attacking my colleagues,” Hunt warned Leavitt at one point. “I would like to talk about Joe Biden, and Donald Trump — who you work for.”

In response to the attacks, CNN released a statement defending their anchors, writing that “Jake Tapper and Dana Bash are well respected veteran journalists who have covered politics for more than five decades combined. They have extensive experience moderating major political debates, including CNN’s Republican Presidential Primary Debate this cycle.”

Trump has been at the forefront of all of these attacks. On Monday, the former president demanded that Biden be drug tested ahead of their CNN-hosted encounter on Thursday. “DRUG TEST FOR CROOKED JOE BIDEN??? I WOULD, ALSO, IMMEDIATELY AGREE TO ONE!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump made similar claims at a weekend rally in Philadelphia, telling the crowd that “a little before debate time, he gets a shot in the ass — they want to strengthen him up so he comes out, he’ll come out, okay, I say he’ll come out all jacked up, right? All jacked up.”

In past debates, Trump has often been a chaotic onstage presence, interrupting other candidates and directly sparring with moderators. In an attempt to keep some semblance of order, CNN has instituted a system where the moderators will be able to mute and un-mute candidates’ microphones to ensure they can only be heard during their designated speaking times.

The new system may not be enough to reign in the former president’s on-stage impulses. Rolling Stone reported this week that Trump’s allies, worried that he might be baited into a reckless response from Biden in one of the most consequential debates of the two mens political careers, have cautioned him not to be a “raging asshole while you’re onstage with Biden.”

We’ll see if he manages to heed their advice.

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