Former Vice President Joe Biden walked back his comments on a hypothetical fight with President Donald Trump in a podcast interview that aired Wednesday.
“I shouldn’t have said what I said,” Biden said to the hosts of “Pod Save America.” “I shouldn’t have brought it up again because I don’t want to get down in the mosh pit with this guy.”
He emphasized that he made the comment within the rhetorical parameters that he and Trump were still in high school, not in the current day. He added that, while he should not have echoed this statement he first made during the 2016 campaign, he still feels strongly about the underlying sentiment.
“The truth of the matter is, I find the behavior and the talk vulgar, I find it degrading, and what I think it does is encourage the minority element of the male population to think it’s okay to engage in the behavior the President talks about,” he said.
The war of words between the septuagenarians began when Biden brought up the Access Hollywood tapes leaked during the campaign while speaking at a recent rally against sexual violence at the University of Miami. “A guy who ended up becoming our national leader said, ‘I can grab a woman anywhere and she likes it.’ ” He continued, “If we were in high school, I’d take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him.”
Trump retaliated with a tweet saying that Biden would “go down fast and hard, crying all the way.”