The thrashing Republican candidate for U.S. president Donald Trump took in his first presidential debate against Democrat Hillary Clinton is being blamed by Trump on a lot of reasons (his mike was sabotaged, for example), but the most hotly debated is the claim Trump was high on cocaine because he was sniffling a lot.
Former Vermont governor Howard Dean, a medical doctor and a Democratic Party leader, started the trending topic of Trump the coke addict by tweeting after the debate on Sept. 27, "Notice Trump sniffing all the time. Coke user?"
After receiving praise from Democrats and ridicule from Republicans (as can be expected), Dean doubled down on his claim Trump might be a coke user because of his constant sniffling during the debate. Dean is a former presidential contender and former chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
Trump himself added fuel to the fire by telling Fox & Friends later he didn't sniffle at all, an astounding assertion since his many sniffles could clearly be heard over TV. This made it seem Trump was so high on coke he didn't know what he was doing.
"I have no allergies. No cold," Trump said on Fox. "There was no sniffles."
Trump is being skewered on social media for this astounding denial. There's even trending hashtag #TrumpSniffle on Twitter.
Dean was likely pleased when TV hosts, Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah, both wondered out loud in their hit TV shows if Trump was snorting coke at the debate.
And as for Dean, he said he wasn't suggesting Trump might have a cocaine addiction.
"Well, you can't make a diagnosis over the television, I would never do that, but he has some interesting -- (sniffling) is actually a signature of people who use cocaine," said Dean.
"Here's the interesting consolation: He sniffs during the presentation, which is something that users do."
"(Trump) also has grandiosity, which is something that accompanies that problem. He has delusions -- I'm not talking about being crazy, but, for example, when he told everybody it was smart not to pay taxes, then denied he said it after he said it in front of 100 million people. It's not that he's delusionary about it. It's that he thinks somehow he's not going to get caught. That is delusional.
"He has trouble with pressured speech. He interrupted Hillary Clinton 29 times. He couldn't keep himself together. So, look, do I think at 70 years old he has a cocaine habit, probably not. But it's something that I think would be interesting to ask him to see if he ever had a problem with that."
On The Late Show, Colbert quipped "For months now, Donald Trump has questioned Hillary's health-repeatedly. And I've gotta say, there was one possible health scare on stage tonight.
"Trump sounded like he was fighting off a cold -- uh, with cocaine."
And this from Noah on the Daily Show: "I don't want to start any rumors, but there's a reason I think Trump didn't do well.
"I'm not sure, and I'm not trying to start rumors, but Trump was sniffing a lot during this debate, and someone needs to look into that."