Rep. Ronny Jackson says Biden should submit to drug tests before and after the debate

Republican Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas, a former White House physician, suggested Sunday that the president Joe Biden should submit to drug tests immediately before and after Thursday’s presidential debate.

“I will demand, on behalf of many millions of concerned Americans right now, that he submit to a drug test before and after this debate, looking specifically for performance-enhancing drugs,” Jackson told Fox News.

Former President Donald Trump made similar comments during a rally in Philadelphia about Biden’s use of drugs to enhance his debate performance.

“So right before the debate, he gets shot in the ass and that’s…they want to toughen him up. Then he leaves, he leaves – OK. I say he’s going to leave all excited, right? Trump told supporters at the rally.

Asked to comment on Jackson’s allegations, a White House spokesperson pointed out a statement last month from spokesman Andrew Bates, who told Politico: “It’s telling that Republican officials can’t stop announcing how intimidated they remain by [the] President’s Performance on the State of the Union.”

Bates added: “But after losing every public and private negotiation with President Biden — and after seeing him succeed where they failed on every aspect, from rebuilding America’s infrastructure to reducing violent crime and overcoming competition with China – he tracks that these same Republican officials confuse trust with a drug.”

Unfounded accusations that Biden used performance-enhancing drugs have dovetailed with attacks on the president’s age and mental fitness as he seeks another term at age 81. Trump, who just turned 78, has also faced doubts about his cognitive abilities, including when he misidentified Jackson as “Ronny Johnson” at a rally last weekend.

Asked by CNN last week about Trump’s false accusations that Biden used drugs, Biden campaign co-chair Mitch Landrieu referred to the “Ronny Johnson incident.”

“The other day, you may remember, he was trying to question our president’s mental acuity and he couldn’t remember his own doctor’s name, so tell President Trump: bring everything he’s got,” Landrieu said.

This isn’t the first time the idea of ​​drug testing has come up around a presidential debate. In 2020, before one of his general election debates, Trump said he would be willing to take a drug test and I think [Biden] you should too.”

In October 2016, Trump also expressed a willingness take a drug test before a presidential debate and asked Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to do the same.

Jackson, a close Trump ally, has faced his share of scrutiny over his behavior in the White House. He joined the White House medical team during the George W. Bush administration and was White House physician under Barack Obama and Trump.

In 2018, Jackson withdrew his nomination to be head of the Department of Veterans Affairs after allegations surfaced that he sometimes got drunk on duty and that he was known as the “candy man” among employees for distributing prescription medications without paperwork.

At the time, Jackson called the allegations “completely false and fabricated.”

A report in 2021 of the Defense Department’s inspector general alleged misconduct by Jackson, including abusive behavior and sexual harassment of subordinates. Jackson denied these allegations.

This article was originally published in NBCNews. with