Trump takes aim at Biden with a ‘knockout’ threat
DONALD Trump yesterday lashed out at former vice president Joe Biden in a bizarre Twitter rant, saying if they met in a fight “he would go down fast and hard, crying all the way”.
The US President, 71, hit back after Mr Biden told students he wanted to “beat the hell” out of him because of his alleged abuse of women.
But Mr Trump wrote: “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!”
Mr Trump’s remarks about Mr Biden’s mental strength were seen as tasteless because he lost his first wife Neilia and one-year-old daughter Naomi in a 1972 car crash.
Boasted
The row broke after Mr Biden, 75, who was Barack Obama’s vice president, attended an anti-sexual violence rally at the University of Miami.
Mr Biden, who is seen as a possible Democrat candidate for the 2020 presidential election, said: “A guy who ended up becoming our national leader said, ‘I can grab a woman anywhere and she likes it.’
“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’.”
Mr Biden was referring to a recording of Mr Trump that emerged during the 2016 presidential election in which he boasted about grabbing women.
Mr Trump dismissed the episode as “locker room talk”. But Mr Biden said: “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... in the room.”
Mr Biden has previously revealed his desire to beat up Mr Trump, saying during the 2016 election: “I’ll get myself in trouble and say something like, ‘I’d like to take him behind the gym if I were in high school’.
“I mean, all kidding aside, wouldn’t you? I mean, for real. Can you imagine a guy in the locker room talking that way? And your sister’s out there watching the game. Not a joke.”
At the time, Mr Trump mocked him as “Mr Tough Guy”.
He said of fighting Mr Biden: “Some things in life you could really love doing.”
The extraordinary row comes with Mr Trump being sued by a porn star, a Playboy model and an Apprentice contestant over sexual allegations.
Mr Trump denies any wrongdoing and in 2016 apologised for his “locker room talk” about making sexual advances to women.
Last year, Mr Biden, asked what advice he would give Mr Trump, said he should stop tweeting.
But Mr Trump’s sharp tweet yesterday suggests that he sees him as a potential rival in 2020.