Joe Biden
Joe BidenReuters

Former US Vice President Joe Biden claimed on Wednesday that Donald Trump is the first racist elected president.

Speaking during a virtual town hall and quoted by Politico, Biden made the claim in response to remarks by Trump and others in his circle referring to the coronavirus as the “China virus,” the “kung flu” and the “Wuhan virus.”

Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, in turn claimed that “no sitting president has ever done this, never, never, never. No Republican president has done this. No Democratic president. We’ve had racists, and they’ve existed, and they’ve tried to get elected president. But he’s the first one that has.”

Several of the country's early presidents owned slaves while in office, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson and Zachary Taylor. Woodrow Wilson was an adamant supporter of segregation in the federal government.

Symone Sanders, a Biden campaign senior adviser, tried to clarify the candidate’s remarks in a statement later Wednesday.

“There have been a number of racist American presidents, but Trump stands out — especially in modern history — because he made running on racism and division his calling card and won,” Sanders said. “He deliberately foments both, intentionally causing indescribable pain because he thinks it advantages him politically.”

“The George Wallaces of our country’s history who have run on these hate-filled themes have lost,” she continued, referring to the segregationist former governor of Alabama who ran unsuccessfully for president.

Biden has repeatedly attacked Trump and has cast him as a uniquely divisive president who frequently employs racist tropes in his rhetoric.

He has also claimed that Trump will attempt to “steal” the November election and has even considered the possibility that the Trump would refuse to leave the White House should he lose.

Trump, for his part, has tied the former Vice President to growing calls on the far-left for the abolition of police forces in the US.