White House press secretary Josh Earnest joked Monday that it is hypocritical for GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump to suggest that opponent Hillary Clinton used performance-enhancing drugs for the last debate because he “snorted his way through the first two debates.”
At Monday’s press briefing, a reporter asked Earnest to comment on the GOP presidential nominee’s suggestion that he and Clinton take a drug test before the final presidential debate on Wednesday because she was “pumped up” at the previous debate earlier this month.
“So you’re telling me that the candidate who snorted his way through the first two debates is accusing the other candidate of taking drugs?” Earnest said. “That’s a curious development in the campaign.”
On Saturday, Trump told supporters in New Hampshire that he and Clinton should be tested for performance-enhancing drugs at Wednesday’s debate in Las Vegas, continuing his line of attack against her health and “stamina” to serve as president.
“Athletes ― they make them take a drug test, right? I think we should take a drug test prior to the debate,” Trump said on Saturday.
“I don’t know what’s going on with her, but at the beginning of her last debate, she was all pumped up at the beginning. And at the end, it was like, ‘Huh, take me down,’” he continued, adding that “she could barely reach her car” after the debate.
On Monday, Earnest later clarified that he was “not at all” insinuating that Trump used drugs during the debates or that the GOP presidential nominee’s widely discussed “sniffling” was related to drug use.
“Just trying to have a little fun,” Earnest said. “I was expecting more chuckles. It was probably just my flawed delivery.”
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Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.
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