California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday called Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump "unhinged" for suggesting that President Joe Biden will be jacked up on drugs for the primetime debate, adding, "It's beneath contempt."
Newsom is in Atlanta for the debate, serving as a surrogate for Biden and his presidential campaign.
Trump has called for drug tests for both Biden and himself, saying at campaign rallies that Biden's going to be "jacked up" and "pumped up" for the debate.
"It's beneath contempt. It's a disgraceful tactic," Newsom told reporters Thursday at the debate media center, hours before it began, The Hill reported.
He added that Trump's assertions were "typical of somebody who's a bit unhinged."
Trump and congressional Republicans have been suspect since Biden's State of the Union Address, during which he came out with an extraordinary amount of energy for that prime-time address.
"I'm going to be demanding on behalf of many millions of concerned Americans right now that he submit to a drug test before and after this debate, specifically looking for performance-enhancing drugs; because we see, we've seen recently in his State of the Union address that there was a Joe Biden that came out that was not similar at all to what we see on a day-to-day basis for the last three and a half years," Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, said Sunday.