Donald Trump on Saturday called for a drug test to be administered to him and Hillary Clinton before their next debate, implying his rival had used drugs during their last face-off on Sunday.
At a rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Trump likened himself and Clinton to athletes, then claimed that when Clinton said she was spending this weekend preparing for their third and final debate on Wednesday night, she was getting "pumped up."
“She's getting pumped up, you understand.” Trump said.
“Athletes, they make them take a drug test, right? I think we should take a drug test prior to the debate. I think we should. Why don't we do that? We should take a drug test,” he continued.
He said that at the beginning of the Sunday's town hall debate in St. Louis, Clinton “was all pumped up,” but appeared to lose energy by the end.
“She could barely reach her car,” he said, alluding to her almost fainting from pneumonia on Sept. 11.
Here’s his full comments on Saturday:
"I think she's actually getting pumped up. She's getting pumped up, you understand. In fact we're going to be talking about that in a few minutes. She's getting pumped up for Wednesday night. Let's see. You know. I don't know. We're like athletes. I beat 17 senators, governors, all these people. Hillary beat Bernie, although it looks like Bernie got a little bit of a bad deal, based on WikiLeaks, right? But we're like athletes, right? Athletes, they make them take a drug test, right? I think we should take a drug test prior to the debate. I think we should. Why don't we do that? We should take a drug test. Because I don't know what's going on with her, but at the beginning of her last debate she was all pumped up at the beginning and at the end it was like, uh, take me down. She could barely reach her car. So I think we should take a drug test. Anyway, I'm willing to do it.
Paula Johnson, who carried a “Women for Trump” sign during the rally, told BuzzFeed News she still had concerns over Clinton's health.
“We need to see how sick she really is. She’s not fit to be president," Johnson said.
Clad in a “Hillary for Prison” t-shirt, David Lavita told BuzzFeed News that he supported Trump’s drug test suggestion.
“Sure it’s a good idea,” he said. “She’s doing something. Her husband doesn’t look too good either.”
Another rally attendant was confused.
“I really got lost on that,” said Debbie, who declined to give her last name. “I thought people thought he was the one on drugs.”
Discussions about both candidates’ health have been topics of their campaigns in the past few months.
Concerns around Clinton’s health mounted when she was diagnosed with pneumonia in September. Prior to that, Trump had made various statements criticizing her stamina and claiming that she was unfit to run the country.
Meanwhile, people have questioned the validity of Trump’s physical report, conducted and written by his doctor, Harold Bornstein. Trump recently went over the results of his physical on an episode of The Dr. Oz Show.
BuzzFeed News has reached out to the Trump and Clinton campaigns.