Former President Donald Trump's eldest son quietly deleted his debunked conspiracy theory about the upcoming debate Thursday after he was subjected to a brutal fact check.
While House Republican Nancy Mace cried foul play over undisclosed "vitamins," Trump Jr. decided to claim CNN would rig the debate by implementing a two-minute air-time delay.
"Live TV has a seven second delay," Trump Jr. wrote in the since-deleted tweet. "Why on earth would CNN need a 1-2 MINUTE delay unless they were planning on manipulating tonight’s debate?"
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CNN has publicly denied the claim — stating simply "this is false" — and notes the debate will begin airing promptly at 9 p.m. ET.
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Hedging his bets, the former president's son also decided to accuse Biden — baselessly — of doping.
"If he wasn’t jacked up on all sorts of drugs, why wouldn’t he submit to such an easy test?" said Trump Jr.
Fellow X users had some answers for him.
"No delay, Junior," replied former MSNBC host Keith Olbemann. "Wrong as usual/Lying as usual/Daddy still doesn't know you exist, as usual."
"The whining and crying continues," commented X user Chidi. "Meanwhile back on earth, CNN is NOT putting the live feed on a 1-2-minute delay."
"Stop making excuses even before the debate," replied X user The New York Independent. "Never seen such pearl clutching paranoia."
Trump Jr. deleted the tweet, time-stamped at 3:53 p.m., less than an hour after it went live, but not before it had been viewed more than 500,000 times.
An updated message does not include the lag time claim and includes instead a new reference to performance enhancers.
"The New York Post published an article about all the drugs that he could 'legally' take to give him an appearance of clarity," he wrote instead. "He'll be higher than Hunter!"
Replied X user Art Candee, "You’re not one to talk, Cokey."
A tweet written and deleted by Donald Trump Jr. on June 27, 2024.
