Miller-Meeks, a doctor, makes up fake Biden drugs accusation on live TV

Is Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks using the Biden drug hoax as a way to appeal to MAGA voters?

Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) alleged that President Joe Biden will be on drugs during Thursday’s presidential debate with Donald Trump, further spreading a right-wing conspiracy theory that started around Biden’s State of the Union address. 

Miller-Meeks, who represents Iowa’s 1st Congressional District and faces Democrat Christina Bohannan in the fall’s general election, made her initial remarks on Biden’s supposed drug use during a Fox Business appearance on Sunday.

“We anticipate that for this first debate, he will be on something, and the response of the press has been to cover it up,” said Miller-Meeks, who speculated earlier in her remarks that Biden may be on Ritalin, steroids, or “something else.”

“We anticipate that for this first debate he will be on something” — GOP Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks spreads reckless, evidence-free conspiracy theories to no pushback on Fox pic.twitter.com/zx2f27jJOb

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 24, 2024

When contacted about her remarks by the Cedar Rapids Gazette, Miller-Meeks doubled down on her unverified claims of Biden’s drug use. She told the paper that her comments “were not a medical diagnosis, but come from an informed medical background.”

Miller-Meeks is an ophthalmologist and maintains her Iowa medical license. She is also the former head of the Iowa Department of Public Health.

The conspiracy theory that Biden is on drugs has been repeated by Trump and other right-wing political and media figures in recent months.

A Washington Post analysis found the first mainstream mention of it was by Fox News Host Jesse Watters shortly after Biden delivered an energetic State of the Union address on March 7.

Watters said, “I’m not a doctor, but they’re giving him something,” before suggesting Biden pee in a cup. The Post also found that Fox News Host Sean Hannity used the phrase “jacked up” more than a dozen times in June as a reference to Biden being on drugs.

Right-wing media and politicians have continued to amplify the message leading up to Thursday’s CNN debate, which allows them to attribute a good performance by Biden to drugs and deflect attention from Trump, who has had his own series of gaffes on the campaign trail, including multiple retellings of a shark vs electrocution anecdote he first told in Iowa.

The Biden campaign has, of course, denied the drug-use claims. In another Washington Post article, campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt said Trump is “so scared of being held accountable for his toxic agenda” that “he and his allies are resorting to desperate, obviously false lies.”

Miller-Meeks isn’t the only Republican member of Congress spreading the conspiracy—nor the only Republican medical professional in the body breathing life into the hoax—but she might also have an alternative motive for dabbling in the world of fringe.

Earlier this month, Miller-Meeks had a closer-than-it-should-have-been primary race against an underfunded challenger from her right. The incumbent garnered 56% of the vote against Davenport businessman David Pautsch, who received 44%.

Pautsch raised $35,353.40 and spent $30,171.93, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings that cover Jan. 1-May 15. Miller-Meeks raised nearly $3 million and spent $1.3 million during that same period. 

Some of the friction between Miller-Meeks and members of her party stems from her “yes” vote on the Respect for Marriage Act, which provides federal protections for homosexual and interracial marriages. Six Iowa GOP county parties voted to censure her in response.

Miller-Meeks also received death threats after she voted against Rep. Jim Jordan—a Trump loyalist—during last fall’s House speaker shake-up. While she did vote for Jordan in earlier rounds, she switched her vote after determining he wouldn’t win.   

Another significant ideological difference between Pautsch and Miller-Meeks is that Pautsch denies the results of the 2020 presidential election, and one of his platform plans was to “legally correct the fraudulent consequences” of it. 

While she prefaced her statement with, “I have serious concerns about how elections were conducted in some states,” Miller-Meeks did her constitutional duty and voted to certify the 2020 election results.

On the other hand, Pautsch openly embraces some of the right’s more radical politics and conspiracy theories—he even invited Mike Lindell to deliver a keynote at a recent Quad Cites prayer breakfast he hosts. He also made it clear he would have been a Trump “yes man” if elected to Congress. 

By playing up the Biden drug-use allegations, Miller-Meeks may be trying to reingratiate herself with the MAGA crowd and conspiratorial-loving Republican voters who saw something they liked in Pautsch that they don’t see in her.