Former Vice President Joe Biden stepped up to trash-talk President Trump on Tuesday night, and for a full day, the internet was riveted by a pissing contest between two septuagenarians.
At an anti-sexual assault rally at the University of Miami, Biden made the surprising initial volley. “A guy who ended up becoming our national leader said, ‘I can grab a woman anywhere and she likes it,'” referring to Trump’s comments on the “Access Hollywood” tape. “They asked me if I’d like to debate this gentleman, and I said ‘no.’ I said, ‘If we were in high school, I’d take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him.”
Biden added: “I’ve been in a lot of locker rooms my whole life. I’m a pretty damn good athlete. Any guy that talked that way was usually the fattest, ugliest S.O.B. in the room.”
That is what is usually called bait, and the president took it faster than a despondent roach. The next morning at 6:22am, Trump maintained that Biden would “go down fast and hard” if they fought. “Crazy Joe Biden is trying to act like a tough guy,” he tweeted. “Actually, he is weak, both mentally and physically, and yet he threatens me, for the second time, with physical assault. He doesn’t know me, but he would go down fast and hard, crying all the way. Don’t threaten people Joe!”
Crazy Joe Biden is trying to act like a tough guy. Actually, he is weak, both mentally and physically, and yet he threatens me, for the second time, with physical assault. He doesn’t know me, but he would go down fast and hard, crying all the way. Don’t threaten people Joe!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 22, 2018
What Trump didn’t mention was the first time Biden threatened him, it was also about the kind of conduct Trump bragged about on the “Access Hollywood” tape. At a campaign stop in Pennsylvania for Hillary Clinton in October 2016, Biden also said he would “take Trump behind the gym” for his remarks. “What he said he did and does is the textbook definition of sexual assault,” Biden said at the campaign stop. “Think about this: It’s more than wrong. He said, ‘Because I’m famous, because I’m a star, because I’m a billionaire, I can do things other people can’t.’ What a disgusting assertion for anyone to make.”
Trump had previously tweeted in 2014 that he felt sorry for Biden’s staff for having to clean up the vice president’s gaffes.
On Wednesday, Biden unveiled his vision of how to “put work, and workers first,” which may be the start of a 2020 White House run. Biden hasn’t formally announced his candidacy, but a Thursday CNN survey of national polls taken in 2018 show that he is the top choice for the Democratic nomination, at 27 percent. Bernie Sanders is second at 21 percent.
