Trump wants Biden to undergo an ear inspection before the debate

Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
(Image credit: JIM WATSON,BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

If President Trump's calls for his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, to join him in taking a drug test before or after Tuesday night's presidential debate were ever serious, they gained little traction. On Tuesday, Trump's campaign moved on to a new demand: that both candidates subject themselves to a pre-debate, third party inspection for electronic ear pieces.

The calls came after a conspiracy theory that Biden would wear such a device spread on social media, including several accounts associated with the QAnon conspiracy theory. Biden's campaign denied reports that it had earlier agreed to an inspection.

The Trump campaign's unfounded speculation that Biden is planning to cheat — whether via electronics or performance-enhancing drugs — during the debate has coincided with their insistence that the former vice president is a strong debater, which runs counter to their usual depiction of him as a gaffe-prone candidate whose mental fitness should be called into question.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

UPDATE: This piece has been updated to reflect the Biden campaign's denial it agreed to a pre-debate inspection.

To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.