Trump on drugs? That explains a lot

Getty Images

From Bipartisan Report:

Newsweek's "proof" that Trump was stoned during the debate

By Tyler

October 1, 2016

Donald Trump began his political career by peddling a vile racist rumor that President Obama was not born in the United States. It was a theory with no evidence to back it up and seemed to be based solely on the color of his skin.

The birther conspiracy was utterly absurd and vile and that’s why it’s rather ironic that Trump is now having to defend himself from a conspiracy theory that has no basis in fact. There are rumors going around the internet that the GOP nominee is abusing drugs. We want to stress that these are only rumors and that there is no evidence to back them up.

The rumors really began to emerge after the first presidential debate which showed Trump sniffing a lot. Twitter was full of posters mocking the GOP nominee with some speculating that he was using drugs:

Sniffling.

Talking too fast.

Drinking water.

I grew up in Florida in the 80s. I've seen these signs.

NewsWeek writer Kurt Eicenwald took this as an opportunity to pay Trump back for spreading rumors regarding Hillary Clinton’s health.

Googled "sniffing symptom." The top hits: drug abuse, inhalant abuse. Clinton had seizures? OK - Trump uses drugs. Prove u dont. #sniffgate

To be clear, these are only rumors and there is no hard evidence to suggest that Trump is taking drugs. However it is rather fitting that a man who built his entire political career around a racist rumor regarding our first black president is now fending off rumors himself.

It’s especially fitting when you consider that President Obama is far from the only person Trump has attacked via baseless speculation. He has attacked Hillary Clinton regarding her health and several of his surrogates accused her having a seizure at the 9/11 memorial before she left to rest and recover from pneumonia.

Speaking of 9/11, he claims to have seen video of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating when the towers fell, but never produced said video. In his defense, we’d have trouble producing something that doesn’t exist as well.

He accused a former Miss Universe of appearing in a sex tape despite the fact that never happened and he himself did make a cameo in a Playboy video.

So is Trump using drugs? No, probably not. There is no evidence for it, but that doesn’t mean we feel bad that he is currently fending off rumors to the contrary.

Rob's comment:

This is just the latest version of LBJ's legendary pig-fucker tactic:

This story may or may not be true, but legend has it that during one of Lyndon Johnson’s congressional campaigns he decided to spread a rumor that his opponent was a pig-fucker. LBJ’s campaign manager said, “Lyndon, you know he doesn’t do that!” Johnson replied, “I know. I just want to make him deny it.”

Tyler does a nice job here, but using "regarding" three times in a short piece is unacceptable. I can't think of when its use is justifiable. "On" or "about" is simpler and shorter. "About" should have been used in all three examples above.