Donald Trump on Friday night attacked both Joe Biden and CNN over the upcoming debate during a speech in Minnesota, claiming the president isn’t physically fit enough to debate him and criticizing one of the network’s star anchors.
During a nearly 90-minute speech at the Minnesota GOP’s Lincoln Reagan Dinner in St. Paul, Trump lashed out at CNN’s Jake Tapper, who is set to moderate the June 27 debate along with Dana Bash, and claimed that Biden should undergo a drug test beforehand. Trump and Biden are also set to debate on ABC on Sept. 10.
“If he makes it through the debate, they’ll say it was the finest debate performance in history,” Trump said of Biden.
Trump said at another point in the speech: “Remember that idiot from CNN? Oh I shouldn’t say that I’m doing a debate with them, they’ll be slightly tougher. I have ‘Fake Tapper’ as the…” stopping himself before he went further.
Trump has long had a contentious relationship with CNN and has often accused it of being biased against him. But Trump last year spoke at a town hall on the network hosted by Kaitlan Collins, where he received cheers from the audience.
CNN defended Tapper, saying in a statement that “there is no one better equipped” to co-moderate the upcoming debate.
Trump has also suggested Biden be drug tested before. Trump said before the first debate of the 2020 campaign that, “I’m willing to take a drug test. I think he should, too.” Trump also suggested Biden had used performance enhancing drugs during his State of the Union address, telling radio show host Hugh Hewitt that “I think something’s going on there, because I watched his State of the Union, and he was all jacked up at the beginning. By the end, he was fading fast.”
Trump in 2016 made the same claims against his then-opponent Hillary Clinton.
A Biden campaign spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
During the Friday night speech, Trump also railed against the multiple criminal cases he’s facing, though with less aggressive rhetoric than during his rally last weekend in New Jersey, when he said Biden is “surrounded by fascists,” and during a private donor retreat in Florida, when he accused the president of running a “Gestapo administration.”
On Friday night, he repeated his often-used line that the judge overseeing his criminal hush-money trial in New York, Justice Juan Merchan, is “totally conflicted” and claimed without providing evidence, that he’s corrupt.
Although Trump is under a gag order that bars him from speaking out against witnesses, jurors and others in the case, he is not prohibited from publicly criticizing the judge or prosecutors.
He also suggested the Biden administration was responsible for all four criminal cases he’s facing in an attempt to prevent him from winning the White House even though two cases — in New York and Georgia — were brought by local prosecutors.
“They’ve weaponized the DOJ,” Trump told the audience. ”That’s what their form of cheating is now.”
During the 90-plus minute speech, Trump touched upon many familiar topics — from criticizing Biden’s economic policies to illegal immigration to railing against electric cars — that he often mentions during his rallies.
Trump is looking to compete in Minnesota, a traditionally Democratic state that his advisers say is in play. During a recent donor retreat in Palm Beach, Florida, top Trump lieutenants presented polling data showing Trump and Biden running close in the state, which hasn’t been won by a Republican presidential candidate since 1972. The campaign has also pointed to Virginia as another Democratic-friendly state it would like to compete in.
“This is an official expansion of the electoral map,” Trump said.
