Former Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean is unapologetically standing by a tweet questioning whether Donald Trump's sniffles during Monday night's debate were linked to cocaine.
During an interview with MSNBC's Kate Snow, the former Democratic National Committee chairman, who is a physician, conceded it's unlikely that 70-year-old Trump has a cocaine habit – but he didn't rule it out either.
"You can't make a diagnosis over the television; I would never do that," he said, adding however the sniffing "is actually a signature of people who use cocaine."
"He sniffs during the presentation, which is something that users do," Dean said, and then attributed a series of other characteristics to Trump that he said "accompanies that problem."
He has "grandiosity," "delusions" and "trouble with pressured speech" and "couldn't keep himself together," Dean claimed. "I think it would be interesting to ask him and see if he ever had a problem with that."
"I just was struck by the sniffing and then by his behavior, which all sort of came together, these four symptoms," Dean said. "You know, do I think he has a cocaine habit? I think it's unlikely that you could mount a presidential campaign at 70 years old with a cocaine habit, but it’s striking."
He added that he would neither apologize for the tweet nor remove it.