President Joe Biden ridiculed the idea that he would rely on performance enhancing substances on Thursday, just prior to the CNN presidential debate with former President Donald Trump in Atlanta.
‘I don’t know what they’ve got in these performance enhancers, but I’m feeling pretty jacked up,’ Biden wrote on social media. ‘Try it yourselves, folks.’
The president’s account shared a picture of Biden holding a can of specially labeled water, featuring the ‘Dark Brandon’ meme. The can reads ‘Zero Malarkey’ and reads ‘Get real Jack, it’s just water.’
The campaign put the cans of water on their website, offering supporters a souvenir can for a donation of $4.60.
For weeks, Donald Trump has fueled wild speculation that President Joe Biden may be on drugs at their 90-minute presidential debate on Thursday.
‘Drug test for crooked Joe Biden? I would also, immediately agree to one,’ Trump declared this week.
Echoing these demands, Ronny Jackson, a Republican congressman, Trump supporter and President Barack Obama’s White House physician, sent a letter to the White House doctor on Monday calling for Biden to be tested before the showdown.
The Biden camp responded on Wednesday dismissing Team Trump’s requests as ‘silly.’
Campaign spokesperson Adrienne Elrod pointed out that the former president lodged nearly the same accusations against Hillary Clinton ahead of their debates in 2016 as well as Biden before they first went toe-to-toe in 2020.
While there is no evidence Biden, or Clinton, ever used ‘performance-enhancing’ substances during debates, it hasn’t stopped rampant conjecture among voters and in the media: Do debate juicing drugs even exist?
Brett O’Donnell, a veteran Republican consultant who has prepped top GOP contenders for decades, said he’s never come across any ‘miracle drugs’ capable of transforming a candidate into a debate dynamo.
O’Donnell, who has coached the likes of President George W. Bush and Senator John McCain, recalled some candidates taking vitamin B-12 injections in the hopes of sharpening their focus and increasing energy levels.
And as the Director of Debate at Liberty University for nearly two decades, O’Donnell said some of his students swore by bee pollen – a natural mixture of flower pollen, bee secretions, honey, wax, and enzymes.
Neither supplement, in O’Donnell’s estimation, makes much of a difference.
He suggests Biden and Trump lean on Red Bull and energy drinks for proven results.
Last week, podcaster Joe Rogan proposed that the President’s team ‘fill him’ with ‘cognitive enhancers’ like Adderall, testosterone and human growth hormone.
But Dr. Carole Lieberman, a medical doctor and psychiatrist, who has raised questions over Biden’s mental fitness in the past, told DailyMail.com that some of Rogen’s prescriptions seem far-fetched.
‘Pharmaceutical stimulants like Adderall,’ Lieberman said, risk elevating heart rates and blood pressure to dangerous levels.
Testosterone can cause blood clots and trigger wild mood swings, especially when an individual is under pressure.
These all, surely, would be unacceptable risks for a Commander-in-Chief.
Rogan also suggested that Biden be given, ‘NAD infusions and IV vitamin infusions multiple days in a row,’ in the runup to the showdown.
NAD (Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) is a coenzyme that can be prescribed to boost the metabolism of aging individuals. Intravenous infusions can quickly address vitamin deficiencies.
Dr. Lieberman said both treatments can incrementally aid focus and concentration, but there are possible side effects, like brain fog.
The drug modafinil is a non-amphetamine stimulant commonly prescribed to treat extreme sleepiness due to narcolepsy or other sleep disorders, like sleep apnea which Biden suffers from.
In March, the President’s doctor Kevin O’Connor revealed Biden had begun using a continuous positive airway pressure machine to treat the condition.
However, Dr. Lieberman said she doubted the President’s doctor would put him on such a powerful drug.
Treating moderate sleep apnea with modafinil would be like, ‘using a hammer to kill a fly,’ she said, and the drug’s troubling side effects, including headache, nausea, nervousness, and dizziness, would surely outweigh any potential benefits.
Dr. Elizabeth Landsverk, a primary care physican specializing in the care of the elderly, warned that Adderall would be too risky for either Biden, 81, or Trump, 72.
‘Instead of enhancing their debate skills, taking stimulants of this type will diminish their performance, making them appear “amped up,” irritable, confused, and unable to filter out the inappropriate,’ she said.
She also expressed concerns about Biden’s advanced age that would make it dangerous for him to take pharmaceutical stimulants, warning of a heart attack or a stroke.
The medical experts that DailyMail.com contacted concluded that there is really only one way for an 81-year-old man – or anyone – to physically prepare for a public debate.
‘Stimulants, other than a cup of coffee, would not enhance,’ Landsverk said. ‘Instead, I would recommend a good night’s sleep the night before and going for a brisk walk right beforehand to get the blood flowing.’