President Trump on Monday called Joe Biden a “low I.Q. individual” after the former vice president had a slip of the tongue and nearly announced he was running for president in 2020.
“Joe Biden got tongue tied over the weekend when he was unable to properly deliver a very simple line about his decision to run for President,” Trump tweeted. “Get used to it, another low I.Q. individual!”
Trump has previously deployed the “low I.Q.” line of attack against a number of critics, including MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and actor Robert De Niro.
{mosads}The president was seizing on a mishap from Biden over the weekend where he told a gathering of Delaware Democrats that he has “the most progressive record of anybody running for the … anybody who would run” for the 2020 nomination.
Attendees began applauding as Biden repeated the phrase, “Of anybody who would run.”
Biden has long been mulling a presidential campaign for 2020 and is considered a near certainty to jump in the race.
The former vice president has been an ardent critic of the president, and caused a stir last year when he said he would have “beat the hell out of” Trump in high school over his degrading comments about women.
Biden has typically hovered at or near the top of polling among Democrats on their preferred 2020 candidate.
A poll released earlier this month showed Biden was the top choice among likely Iowa Democratic caucus participants, garnering 27 percent of the vote. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was the first choice of 25 percent of those surveyed.
Should Biden officially announce his candidacy, he would join an increasingly crowded field of presidential hopefuls.
Beto O’Rourke, the former Texas congressman, entered the race last week, joining Sanders, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Cory Booker, among others.
Trump has previously welcomed the idea of facing off against the former vice president, calling him a “dream opponent.”
Last week, he declined to say whether he viewed Biden or O’Rourke as a stronger challenger, telling reporters “Whoever it is, I’ll take him or her on.”
Updated at 9:46 a.m.