It has long been rumored that President Joe Biden is given by his handlers some sort of performance-enhancing drug or stimulant prior to major events and speeches to counter his increasingly obvious physical and mental decline.

Those suspicions were bolstered, if not confirmed, when the Biden campaign and a top surrogate not only dismissed a challenge from former President Donald Trump to take a pre-debate drug test but also refused to directly deny that Biden was receiving a medicated boost to his capabilities, Fox News reported.

Trump challenges Biden to pre-debate drug test

Amid increasing chatter about the possibility of President Biden being artificially boosted by drugs ahead of Thursday night's presidential debate on CNN, former President Trump said Monday in a Truth Social post, "DRUG TEST FOR CROOKED JOE BIDEN??? I WOULD, ALSO, IMMEDIATELY AGREE TO ONE!!!"

He followed that up a short time later with screenshots of a letter sent by Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX), the former White House physician, to Biden and the current White House Physician Kevin O'Connor that similarly urged a pre- and post-debate drug test for the incumbent and a public release of the results.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the drug test challenge was not well received by the Biden campaign, though the rumored use of drugs by the president was not directly denied in their dismissive responses.

Trump's challenge a "silly" tactic unworthy of a response

On Tuesday, the Daily Beast reported that Biden campaign spokeswoman Adrienne Elrod was asked on CNN to respond to Trump's drug test challenge but she simply rejected it as a "silly" tactic Trump has used before in previous election cycles that was indicative of his lack of a compelling campaign message.

"I mean, I don‘t even really know what to say about that," Elrod said about Trump's drug test posts. "I worked on Hillary Clinton‘s campaign. She had also debated him very effectively. He accused her of being on drugs. President Biden defeated Donald Trump twice in previous debates."

"This is what he does because he doesn‘t have anything else to run on," she added. "He doesn‘t have a plan. He doesn‘t have a record for fighting for the American people. He doesn‘t know why he’s running, except to seek political retribution on his enemies. And so he has to resort to these types of tactics which are frankly just silly and turn off a lot of voters, especially voters who want to see their president fight for them."

Trump attacked over debate drug test challenge

Fox News asked both the Biden campaign and the White House to respond to Trump's pre-debate drug test challenge, and while the White House refused to reply to the request the campaign issued a response that neither confirmed nor directly denied the rumors but instead attacked the incumbent president's rival.

On Wednesday, Biden campaign spokeswoman Lauren Hitt said, "Donald Trump is so scared of being held accountable for his toxic agenda of attacking reproductive freedom and cutting Social Security that he and his allies are resorting to desperate, obviously false lies."

Pressed for a simple "yes" or "no" response to the drug test question, Hitt merely reiterated, "The accusation from Trump on drugs is a 'desperate, obviously false lie.'"

Even California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), a top Biden surrogate, got in on the act ahead of the debate on Thursday, according to The Hill, when he told reporters that Trump's innuendos about Biden taking drugs was "beneath contempt. It’s a disgraceful tactic," and a ploy that was "typical of somebody who’s a bit unhinged."

What is Team Biden hiding?

In the interest of fairness, Fox News also asked the Trump campaign if the former president would take any sort of stimulant or performance-enhancing drug ahead of Thursday's debate, but campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt replied, "Absolutely not."

"President Trump has naturally elite stamina and doesn't need performance-enhancing drugs, unlike Joe Biden, who many are saying will be drugged up for the debate like he was at the State of the Union," she added. "President Trump has repeatedly asked Joe Biden to participate in drug testing. What does Team Biden have to hide?"