NEW YORK: US President Donald Trump welcomed former Vice President Joe Biden to the 2020 presidential race on Thursday by hurling insults about his intelligence and taunting the presumed frontrunner about his chances of winning the Democratic nomination.
Biden and Trump have a long history of insults and dislike for one another, suggesting the back-and-forth is likely to continue as the veteran American politician enters the large field of Democratic presidential candidates.
“Welcome to the race, Sleepy Joe. I only hope you have the intelligence, long in doubt, to wage a successful primary campaign,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “It will be nasty — you will be dealing with people who truly have some very sick & demented ideas. But if you make it, I will see you at the Starting Gate!”
Less than three hours earlier, Biden announced on Twitter that he was running for president with a video that attacked Trump directly. That video highlighted Trump’s much-criticized remark that there were “very fine people on both sides” of a white nationalist rally and counter-protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. One counter-protester was killed in the incident.
Before Biden announced his candidacy, Trump had tweeted a video mocking him over a series of reports of women alleging the former vice president made physical contact they felt was inappropriate. Earlier in April, Trump mocked Biden and his fellow 2020 challenger Bernie Sanders, handing them insulting nicknames as the president has created for many of his political foes.
“I believe it will be Crazy Bernie Sanders vs. Sleepy Joe Biden as the two finalists to run against maybe the best Economy in the history of our Country (and MANY other great things)!” Trump wrote on Twitter. “I look forward to facing whoever it may be. May God Rest Their Soul!”
The feud between the two septuagenarians boiled over in 2018 when Biden threatened to beat up Trump. “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 said of Trump.
Trump responded on Twitter, excoriating Biden by calling him weak and arguing the former vice president would lose in a fistfight. “Crazy Joe Biden is trying to act like a tough guy,” Trump wrote. “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!”
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