Trump posts altered image of Biden in nursing home while pushing fake conspiracies about his health
President Donald Trump stirred controversy while continuing to promote conspiracy theories about his opponent’s mental and physical fitness, posting an image on Twitter that superimposed former Vice President Joe Biden’s face in a nursing home for senior citizens.
The image was a mockery of the Democratic presidential candidate’s campaign, including a logo that read: “Biden for President.”
However, the image featured a red “X” mark on the letter “p”, causing the image to read: “Biden for Resident”
Along the campaign trail, Mr Trump has made baseless and disparaging remarks about the former vice president’s mental health, claiming he was unfit to serve in the White House while dubbing him with the nickname “Sleepy Joe” Biden.
The president has sought to broaden his appeal among senior voters — a crucial voting bloc that helped him sail to victory in the 2016 elections against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — thought it did not appear the continued attacks against Mr Biden, 77, were working in his favor.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 14, 2020
Recent polls showed the former vice president with a reported 20-point lead over Mr Trump among voters ages 65 and above, and leading in a majority of battleground states that experts say will determine the fate of the November vote, including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona and Wisconsin.
Mr Trump is still ahead of the former vice president in Ohio, according to the latest surveys, another key state in determining the outcome of the 2020 elections.
The Biden campaign has strongly rebuked false allegations about the former vice president’s fitness for office made by the president and his allies. Still, Mr Trump has continued to lambast Mr Biden’s mental acuity and said at a rally before the first presidential debates that the former vice president didn’t know he was alive.
“This guy doesn’t have a clue,” Mr Trump said at the time. “He doesn’t know where the hell he is … This guy doesn’t know he’s alive.”
“He’s a dumb guy,” Mr Trump said at another campaign event in Pennsylvania, adding: “Always known as a dumb guy.”
Mr Trump’s attacks on his opponent comes amid a push by his administration to extend federal aid and resources to groups of Americans seen as critical in his re-election bid, including farmers and seniors.
The president’s critics have contested recent changes made to aid programs that have required boxes of food sent to America’s poorest families to include a letter from the president suggesting the aid came directly from him.
Mr Trump has also pushed in recent weeks to provide seniors with $200 discounts for their prescription medications, part of an alleged effort reportedly described by the Bipartisan Policy Center as an attempt “to but the election in a way that nobody has ever done before”.
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