Indoor rallies, policy clashes, televised town halls, the presidential campaign is beginning to pick up familiar overtones down the stretch. Next up is the more conventional political sparring of presidential debates, where the gloves are sure to come well and truly off as Trump and Biden engage face-to-face for the first time.
In advance of the first presidential debate this week – the first of three scheduled presidential debates ahead of the 2020 US Elections on November 3 – president Donald Trump has repeatedly floated the idea that Biden might be under the influence of performance-enhancing drugs. Calling even for “drugs tests” to be administered to himself and Biden before the pair engage in a debate next week.
Donald Trump’s groundless charge stems from the impression that Biden’s debate performance inexplicably improved ahead of a one-on-one debate with Bernie Sanders in March, during the Democratic presidential primary.
Biden was “close to incompetent, if not incompetent, and against Bernie, he was normal,” said Trump in an interview with the Washington Examiner last month, continuing, “I say, ‘How does that happen?'”
Trump claims he was intrigued by Joe Biden’s improved performance during the Democratic primary and suggested his administration might go so far as to call for a “drugs test” for both himself and Biden before the first presidential debate, even though he didn’t offer any evidence for his suspicion, save for implying he had a nose for such things when he said, “all I can tell you is that I’m pretty good at this stuff.”
Trump raised the idea of a drug test again when speaking to Laura Ingraham on Fox News. He’s on some kind of an enhancement in my opinion,” said Trump. Adding that both should have a drug test, “I should take a drug test, so should he. Because we don’t want to have a situation where a guy is taking some kind of…”
This isn’t the first time Trump has made such claims. Ahead of the 2016 presidential elections, Trump made similar such claims about Hillary Clinton. Also suggesting then that both should submit to a drug test in the interest of the fair play.
More recently, during a rally in Nevada, Trump called Joe Biden ‘the worst’ candidate who ‘doesn’t know he is alive.’
“He is the worst candidate in the history of presidential politics. He doesn’t know he is alive,’ said Trump.Trump critics dismiss these political punches as antics aimed at casting doubt on Joe Biden’s mental fitness, who at 77 years of age stands to be the oldest president of the United States should he win the general elections in November; in keeping with Trump’s ongoing disruptive tactic to portray aging, declining Biden with frequent references to “Sleepy Joe” and “Slow Joe.”
Inasmuch as Trump’s campaign is focused on Biden’s competency for the commander in the chief job, Democrats, on the other hand, are keen to keep the election race trained on Trump – more specifically a referendum on Trump’s handling of the national crises of the last few months.
Most recently, Joe Biden’s campaign released an ad that blasted Trump over alleged comments he made about military service members, Biden tweeted the ad highlights along with a message, saying “Mr. President, if you don’t respect our troops, you can’t lead them.”
Neither the ad nor the challenging tweet went down well with the “America first” president, who considers himself an ardent supporter of the U.S. military, it’s members, and veterans. And a fuming Trump promised supporters during the Nevada rally that he was prepared to be “really vicious” in the final weeks of the presidential race.
“But you know the good part?” Trump continued. “Now I can be really vicious. Once I saw that ad, I don’t have to be nice anymore.”
According to some of the top sportsbooks that have maintained a keen eye on the US Elections, ever since they revved up into full gear earlier this year, the odds seem to be switching a lot between the two-clear favourites since the beginning of the year Donal Trump used to be the favourite to win upcoming elections, but now the odds had changed favouring Biden. Let us take for example the BetOnline odds, they have Joe Biden has a slight edge over Donald Trump with a -130 while Trump is labelled as the underdog with +110 in the lines. However, the advantage on the odds board is so minuscule, it’s negligible
To all intents and purposes, it’s a right toss-up in the betting between Trump and Biden. That said, the US has gone 28 years without a president failing to win a second term in office, meaning the advantage of incumbency has yielded a 100% winning record. The last president not to win a second-term was George HW Bush, who lost to Bill Clinton in 1992.
President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden are set to go head-to-head in the first presidential debate on September 29. Another two presidential debates are scheduled for October 15 and 22.
