Former Vice President Joe Biden hit back at President Trump’s “Sleepy Joe” nickname for him, saying, “I don’t have any problem comparing my energy level to Donald Trump.”
Trump, as well as many other commentators in the media, have raised questions about Biden’s fitness for office and stamina.
“In terms of energy, I don’t have any problem comparing my energy level to Donald Trump, who I’m really resisting giving a nickname to,” Biden told host Peter Hamby in an interview on “Good Luck America,” Snapchat’s daily political show aimed at younger voters.
Trump has long branded Biden as “Sleepy Joe” in social media posts and at rallies, raising questions about the 77-year-old politician’s cognitive abilities.
Biden’s efforts to battle Trump’s “sleepy Joe” nick name are complicated by the coronavirus pandemic, which has forced him to campaign remotely from his basement in Delaware while the president has begun to tour sites outside the White House related to the pandemic.
Biden described the president as a “master at laying nicknames on people,” and said he “can hardly wait to get onto the stage” with Trump during the televised general election debates.
“What I’m trying to do is play by the rules — the rules set by the governors and others that I not be out, that we be socially keeping ourselves back right now,” he said. “But I’m looking forward to the time, as this begins to loosen up, to be able to go out and campaign and hold rallies and do the rest.”
Biden has so far not been tested for the virus, however Trump, in an interview Friday on “Fox & Friends,” said that if Biden asked for rapid coronavirus testing, he’d quickly make it available to him because “I’d love to see him get out of the basement so he can speak. He’s locked in a basement somewhere.”