President Joe Biden leaned into Donald Trump’s bogus attacks that the president is getting “jacked up” with drugs before their debate by posing with a can of his own “secret sauce.”
“I don’t know what they’ve got in these performance enhancers, but I’m feeling pretty jacked up,” Biden posted on social media less than 30 minutes before hitting the debate stage.
The post linked to a can of “Dark Brandon Secret Sauce” – canned water, “zero malarkey” – on his campaign’s website.
“The secret to a good debate performance? Staying hydrated,” the website copy says. “Get yourself the same performance enhancers Joe Biden took before going on stage.”
The former president, his Republican allies and right-wing media have spent days airing evidence-free claims that Biden is “jacked up” with performance-enhancing drugs.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has suggested Biden is downing “a whole gallon of energy drinks” to prepare for Thursday night’s debate, while other GOP members have accused the president of taking “mind-altering stimulants” or getting his aides to “jack him up on Mountain Dew.”
“How much Adderall are they going to give him?” South Carolina Republican Representative Nancy Mace said on Newsmax on Thursday. “How many vitamins is he gonna be on?”
Similar unsubstantiated statements flooded social media and right-wing networks for months in the wake of Biden’s State of the Union address. The latest batch of bogus statements are an apparent attempt to preemptively discredit Biden before he takes the stage.
Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News on Thursday that the former president “has naturally elite stamina and doesn’t need performance-enhancing drugs.”
“Unlike Joe Biden,” she added, “who many are saying will be drugged up for the debate like he was at the State of the Union.”