Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson attempted to downplay any cocaine rhetoric aimed at President Joe Biden by former President Donald Trump's camp as pure ribbing.
CNN's Kaitlan Collins asked Johnson to explain the gallows smearing of Biden as a cokehead.
"Knowing you and how you conduct yourself with decency, some of the rhetoric is out of line, when people from Trump's team are suggesting and Trump himself, that Biden is going to be on cocaine when he's on that debate stage Thursday night."
Johnson did his best to bowtie the mudslinging.
"Look, there's a lot of things that are said in jest," he said. "Of course, no one expects that Joe Biden will be on cocaine but they do ask questions — and I think their objectively... I mean I think it makes sense why — people are asking, 'Will [Biden] be on some sort of energy drinks or something, okay?"
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He continued: "Look, his energy levels, you can see vary depending on what format he's in and what forum — and we expect that he'll do what he did at the State of the Union; he had a lot of energy that night, so that's the Joe Biden I expect to see."
But when it came to whether Biden could match Trump, who has been canvassing the country holding rallies — he thinks Biden will fall short.
"The question is: Can he stay for 90 minutes on that stage and go toe-to-toe with President Trump, who has, you know, goes to rallies and talks for two hours on end without any break and any notes.
"So it'll be a very interesting thing to see."
Collins didn't let Johnson off without emphasizing the insulting effort to cast aspersions about Biden and cocaine.
"I mean, the allegations just about drugs have just been frankly ridiculous and obviously are baseless as well," she said.
As recently as this week, Trump has re-rinsed a jab at the president that he must be "jacked up" when he debates or delivers the State of the Union address.
And while waxing off-cuff at a rally in Racine, Wisconsin Trump teased cocaine found at the White House as a riff in mocking Hunter Biden’s forsaken laptop.
“Who left it," he told the crowd. "Somebody left it. I wonder, let’s see. Somebody left the laptop in an office of a gentleman who was supposed to fix the laptop from hell.
"He never picked it up, and somebody didn’t pick up hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cocaine. I wonder who that could’ve been. I don't know. Actually I think it was Joe ha-ha.
The crowd chuckled.
Watch the clip below or at this link.
