“The Gloves Are Coming Off!” Trump’s Conspiracy-Laden Fundraising Email Ahead of Debate

With just one day to go until the CNN presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, Trump sent out a conspiracy-filled, exaggerated fundraising email to his supporters with the subject line, “THE GLOVES ARE COMING OFF!” The email contained bizarre claims about the debate, urging supporters to fund his campaign because the other side is “cheating.”

“I’m bringing out the BIG GUNS before I step into the ring with Crooked Joe Biden tomorrow,” the email stated, as reported by Raw Story. “Sleepy Joe is relying on a cocktail of drugs to keep him upright and awake. He’s relying on highly biased moderators like FAKE Tapper to feed him softball questions. And he’s relying on his army of so-called fact checkers to spread LIE AFTER LIE on his behalf.” The email closed with a call to join his “advisory board,” linking to a fundraising platform.

The idea that Biden is being secretly drugged to stay alert for the debate is completely unsubstantiated. This is a claim that Trump and several of his Republican allies have made, even going so far as to demand that Biden submit to a drug test before the debate, fearing that by painting Biden as mentally weak, they have lowered expectations for the president’s performance.

Trump had also personally consented to all the conditions of the debate, including those he criticizes in the email. The debate, scheduled for June 27 in Atlanta, occurs instead of the customary Commission on Presidential Debates sessions later in the campaign.

This is not the only controversial fundraising email he has sent out ahead of the debate. In another email, Trump claimed, without evidence, that he was “tortured” during his processing at the Fulton County Jail in Georgia after his arrest last August, The Guardian reported. This incident resulted in the mugshot he has since used to raise revenue for his presidential campaign.

“I want you to remember what they did to me. They tortured me in the Fulton County Jail, and TOOK MY MUGSHOT,” Trump wrote, urging his supporters not to forget his supposedly “unfair” arrest, along with promoting coffee cups with his mugshot. “So guess what? I put it on a mug for the WHOLE WORLD TO SEE!”

Trump’s stint in jail came about as a consequence of his criminal indictment, for which he is currently facing 13 counts. The accusations stem from claims that Trump attempted to rig the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, one of the crucial states that Joe Biden won. While there were no reports at the time of torture or other abuse, Trump’s followers saw the ensuing photo as a badge of honor that would appear on campaign merchandise. It took him roughly twenty minutes to be booked, fingerprinted, and photographed when he arrived in Georgia in a presidential-style convoy.