Vice President Joe Biden said Monday that Donald Trump “is out there doing something very dangerous,” as he described the Republican presidential nominee’s controversial political rhetoric.
In an interview with NPR, Biden criticized Trump’s claim that the election is being “rigged,” and offered an updated variation on one of President Barack Obama’s famous refrains — “don’t boo, vote.”
“There’s only one way to make sure there’s no traction — vote. Vote,” Biden said. “I think when we appeal to the better angels of Americans, we’ve always succeeded.”
Biden also commented on the recording of Trump talking about sexually assaulting women on “Access Hollywood” in 2005, which Trump and his allies have dismissed as “locker room talk.”
“What Donald Trump did, I hope, is not a reflection of American public opinion, and the conduct of the vast majority of men,” Biden said. “I was a pretty good athlete. I spent a lot of time in a lot of locker rooms in high school and college. I never heard talk like that.”
The vice president predicted Republicans would be drawn to oppose Trump even if he were to win the presidency, saying, “I think you’ll have first and foremost, Republican Party saying, ‘how do we stop Donald Trump’s policies?'”
And Biden expressed optimism about the prospects of a Hillary Clinton presidency. Saying that not making his own presidential run “was the right decision for me and my family,” Biden added that he was “confident Hillary will do a great job.”
He also downplayed the damage done to Clinton’s campaign by ongoing revelations from hacked emails distributed by WikiLeaks.
“Obviously, they’ve hurt her campaign. But there doesn’t seem to be any there there. That’s why a lot of people thought that it would have been better a year ago to say ‘here — here’s everything I did in my emails.'”