Former Vice President Joe Biden said in an interview that aired Friday on CNN that he was not afraid of facing President Trump in 2020, referring to Trump as the kind of “bully” he’s been known to stand up to his entire life.
“He’s the bully that I knew my whole life. He’s the bully that I’ve always stood up to. He’s the bully that used to make fun when I was a kid that I stutter, and I’d smack him in the mouth,” Biden told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on Thursday.
{mosads}The 2020 Democratic frontrunner went on to suggest that he was looking forward to facing off with the president in a debate.
“I’m looking forward to this man. You walk behind me in the debate. Come here, man,” he said, appearing to refer to Trump walking up closely behind 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton during the presidential debates.
Biden’s comments on facing off with Trump are in line with his campaign’s strategy so far of focusing on the goal of advancing to the general election in 2020, instead of getting into the fray in the crowded Democratic primary.
Trump himself has noted of the strategy, and has launched a series of attacks on Biden, referring to him repeatedly as “Sleepy Joe.”
Recent head-to-head polling shows Biden besting Trump in hypothetical general election matchups.
However, the former vice president has been the subject of attacks from his primary opponents, most recently from Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who hit Biden on his record on federally mandated busing during last month’s debates.
“I get all this information about other people’s past and what they’ve done and not done. And, you know, I am just not going to go there,” Biden told Cuomo. “If we keep doing that, that’s, I mean, we should be debating what we do from here.”