The Republican online ecosystem has gone into overdrive forward of the primary US presidential debate. Lawmakers and influencers are pushing wild conspiracy theories about President Joe Biden, and as a substitute of developing with something new, they’re recycling drained previous allegations which have already been debunked—together with claims that Biden can be “jacked up” on performance-enhancing medicine.
“He’s sleeping now, as a result of they wish to get him good and robust,” former president Donald Trump said of Biden at a campaign rally over the weekend, with out offering any proof. “So just a little earlier than debate time, he will get a shot within the ass. They wish to strengthen him up. I’d say he’ll come out all jacked up.”
That is an virtually precise repeat of a claim Trump made at a rally in 2020, when he claimed Biden would get “a giant fats shot within the ass” in an effort to debate “higher than ever earlier than.” Trump additionally made an identical declare towards Hillary Clinton in 2016. Trump has additionally called for Biden to take a drug test earlier than the occasion, which he additionally did in 2020.
Trump’s feedback look like a part of a wider push by the Trump marketing campaign to control the online narrative across the debate.
Trump’s former White Home doctor, Ronny Jackson, posted on X: “DRUG TEST BIDEN BEFORE THE DEBATE! Will we see Sleepy Joe, who lives within the White Home Basement, or will we see Jacked-Up Joe who made an look on the State Of The Union???”
Jackson additionally spoke to Fox Enterprise’ Maria Bartiromo, who helped increase the baseless conspiracy. Through the interview, Jackson went even additional, speculating on why Biden and his workforce had been hunkered down in Camp David forward of the talk:
“Biden can have been at Camp David for a full week earlier than the talk, and … they’re most likely experimenting with getting doses proper, getting him drugs earlier than the talk,” mentioned Jackson, who’s at present operating for Congress in Texas with Trump’s endorsement.
Different politicians additionally weighed in.
“I believe Trump’s workforce mustn’t underestimate Joe Biden and his workforce’s potential to jack him up on Mountain Dew or no matter it’s,” Missouri consultant Eric Burlison mentioned in an interview on Fox Enterprise, including: “Look, the State of the Union this 12 months, he had numerous vitality for about an hour or an hour and a half.”
The community of pro-Trump, right-wing influencers on X and Telegram have picked up the conspiracy en masse, sharing clips of Trump’s feedback and the interviews with Jackson and Burlison.
In conspiracy channels on Telegram, influential figures are boosting even wilder allegations in regards to the debate, together with a number of completely different claims that Biden is about to tug out of the talk for medical causes, and that both a brand new Democratic nominee can be picked or the 25th Amendment can be invoked and Vice President Kamala Harris will turn out to be president. There isn’t a proof to again up any of those claims.
