Former Vice President Joe Biden told students at the University of Miami that he wishes he could engage in fisticuffs with President Donald Trump over the infamous Access Hollywood comments. The president shot back on Twitter.
“When a guy who ended up becoming our national leader said, ‘I can grab a woman anywhere and she likes it,’ and then said, ‘I made a mistake,’ they asked me would I like to debate this gentleman, and I said no,” Biden recalled. “I said, ‘If we were in high school, I’d take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him.'”
The University of Miami College Democrats posted the video of these remarks on Facebook. The former vice president’s taunt to Trump begins around minute 43 of the video below.
Biden first expressed his desire to brawl with Trump back in October 2016. In discussing the Access Hollywood tapes (which revealed Trump saying he could grab a woman anywhere he wanted because he was famous), the vice president said, “The press always asked me do I wish I were debating him? No, I wish we were in high school and I could take him behind the gym.”
Trump responded to these remarks on Thursday morning by accusing Biden of threatening him “with physical assault.”
“Crazy Joe Biden is trying to act like a tough guy,” the president 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
Biden did not necessarily threaten “physical assault,” but the president’s aggressive response to taunts will likely resonate with his base. Many Trump backers appreciate this swagger, but many opponents of the president appreciated Biden’s aggressive posture as well. When the former vice president delivered the “beat the hell out of him” line, the crowd went wild.
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Similar Trump flare came out after Biden’s original comments in October 2016. “You know when he said, ‘I’m going to take you behind the barn’? Oh, trust me, I would kick his a**,” Trump shot back. “He’d be easy.”
Whether or not a brawl between the two men would end in victory for either, these kind of taunts seem unlikely to endear either man to political independents. Unfortunately, with the framing of the Access Hollywood tapes and Biden’s suggestion that the actions Trump bragged about constituted “a textbook definition of sexual assault,” the former vice president might actually have the political upper hand.
Even in that case, the former vice president has serious scandals to explain if he plans to challenge Trump in 2020.
Peter Schweizer just published a book detailing Biden corruption. The former vice president’s son Hunter made deals with Chinese companies under FBI investigation for stealing U.S. nuclear secrets while Biden himself helped craft Obama’s soft policy toward China.
Hunter Biden also made shady deals with a Ukrainian natural gas company that was under investigation for losing $1.8 billion in U.S. aid … until four days before his father’s “swan song” visit to Ukraine. The former vice president was Obama’s “point person” in Ukraine.
Biden might not take Trump behind the gym, but he seems to have orchestrated deals to make his son wealthy at the expense of America’s interests in China and Ukraine.
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