Biden campaign denies ‘absurd’ Trump claim about wearing an earpiece during debate

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The campaign for presidential candidate Joe Biden strongly denied he plans to wear an earpiece in Tuesday’s debate, and denied he declined to be inspected ahead of time or take breaks during the 90-minute face-off, as the Trump campaign claimed.

“It is completely absurd. Of course, he is not wearing an earpiece, and we never asked for breaks,” Deputy Campaign Manager Kate Bedingfield told reporters.

The claim came late Tuesday morning when the Trump campaign issued a statement via communications director Tim Murtaugh condemning Biden for refusing “a pre-debate inspection for electronic earpieces” and “refusal to take a drug test.” The statement offered no evidence of the claim.

Biden’s team had earlier joked that the Democratic candidate planned to use words — not urine — to win the debate.

The pre-debate accusations came as President Donald Trump spent Tuesday preparing for the debate in Cleveland.

Trump’s prep team includes former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, campaign communications strategist Jason Miller, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Jared Kushner, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and communications director Alyssa Farah. Some other advisers like Dan Scavino and Hope Hicks have also been involved.

While Trump is itching to go on the offense against Biden, some aides have encouraged him to adopt a more measured tone — believing that in many ways the debates are more about Trump vs himself than Biden. Trump, they argue, should focus more on selling his accomplishments than trying to viciously attack Biden. Some involved with the preparations, though, have encouraged Trump’s more aggressive “counterpunching” side.