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Republicans regularly portray Joe Biden as weak and unable to serve as president.
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In the run-up to his debate with Trump, they change course and even say that he will use drugs.
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It’s an admission that they’ve set expectations too low for Biden, and that could backfire.
Day in and day out, Republicans portray Joe Biden as a man too old and too weak to carry out the duties of the presidency.
It’s probably their most powerful attack, as most Americans are concerned about his age. At 81 years old, Biden is the oldest person to ever serve as president, and there’s no denying that he shows it at times.
But now, ahead of a high-stakes debate with Donald Trump on Thursday, some Republicans are adding a twist to that story: Biden could show up under the influence of drugs.
The most outspoken of the bunch is Rep. Ronny Jackson, a close Trump ally who previously served as White House physician from 2013 to 2018: The Texas Republican sent a letter to Biden demanding he undergo a drug test before the debate.
There’s also the more anodyne version of the theory, promoted by Republicans like Rep. Eric Burlison of Missouri, who speculated that Biden’s advisers were “getting him pumped on Mountain Dew.”
Why are Republicans even talking about this?
They may realize that their portrayal of Biden as weakened can only benefit the president during the debate.
It all goes back to the State of the Union
“Just before debate time, he’s going to get a shot in the ass,” Trump said at a rally in Philadelphia on Saturday. ‘He looks all worked up, right? All worked up.’
“I’m sure he’ll be prepared,” Trump later added. “What happened to all that cocaine that disappeared from the White House a month ago?”
This sort of thing is nothing new for Trump. In 2016, he suggested that he and Hillary Clinton submit to drug testing, and in 2020, he suggested that Biden was on drugs while debating his Democratic primary opponents.
What’s new is the embrace of that theory by rank-and-file Republicans, most of whom appear surprised by Biden’s relatively strong performance during the State of the Union address in March.
“He was very different in the State of the Union than he has been in public for the past three and a half years,” Jackson told Business Insider.
“I remember walking into the State of the Union and thinking, ‘We’re going to see Sleepy Joe,’ and we saw Joe lifted up on Mountain Dew Joe,” Burlison told Business Insider. “I think he will be attentive and alert because the game continues.”
When Biden spoke to Congress, he was coming off one of the worst months of his campaign. Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report characterized the president as an aging man with a poor memory, and liberal pundits openly discussed the benefits of his replacement.
Biden managed to reset the narrative with a State of the Union address that was energetic and highly political. While it did not result in a lasting lead for the president, it did give him a modest rise in the polls.
The president has been preparing for the debate for days, and he likely wants to seize a similar opportunity on Thursday.
Neither Burlison nor Jackson went so far as to admit they are playing an expectations game with Biden, but both men acknowledged it is an important factor.
“Probably expectations were set too low,” Jackson said. The Texas congressman predicted Biden would be “sleepy” or “freaked out” during the debate, but acknowledged the president could end up somewhere in the middle. “If that happens, I mean, it’s a win for him, right?”
‘I don’t think we should underestimate it [Biden]Burlison said. “Trump’s team must be fully prepared and not plan for sleepy Joe.”
Read the original article on Business Insider
