Joe Biden called Donald Trump as the country's first racist elected president. The former vice president was speaking at a virtual town hall when he remarked in response to the racist remark made by the president while referring to the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump and his aides have referred to the virus as the Wuhan virus, China virus, and the Kung flu. Biden claims no sitting president has ever made such racist comment in the past, adding that neither a Republican nor a Democratic president has done this. Biden went on to say that while several racists have tried getting elected president, Trump is the first one that has.

Several American presidents including Zachary Taylor, Andrew Jackson, Thomas Jefferson, and even George Washington have owned slaves while in office. Woodrow Wilson was an ardent supporter of segregation in the federal government, and citing his reputation for being a racist, there have been demands to remove his name from Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs.

As part of a decision made last month, the aforesaid school was renamed. Biden campaign senior adviser Symone Sanders released a statement on Wednesday in an attempt to explain the former vice president's remarks. While there has no dearth of racist American presidents, Sanders said Trump stands out as a modern history's racist president.

Sanders accused Trump of cashing in on racism and division for winning. Moreover, she said the president deliberately provokes racism and division for his political advantage, but which leads to a lot of pain. Sanders went on to say that the George Wallaces of American history who have tried to take advantage of these hateful themes have lost.

She gave an example of segregationist former governor of Alabama, who ran for president but lost. Biden's comments were first reported by The Washington Post. Biden continues to tout Trump as a divisive president who doesn't shy away from adopting racial allegory in his speeches.

Trump has faced strong criticism in the past for referring to countries with a large number of black people as shit-hole countries and has also come under fire for barring travel from numerous Muslim-majority countries soon after he took office. On top of that, he has a reputation for using racist nicknames for his Democratic opponents, including referring to Massachusetts' Sen. Elizabeth Warren as Pocahontas.

Keeping in line with that, Biden continues to build his campaign around the election being a battle for America's soul. Biden claims he felt compelled to run for president after witnessing Trump's response to the 2017 white supremacist attack on counter-protesters in Virginia by saying there were very fine people on both sides, Times of India reported.

The White House, however, continues to deny the president's characterization of coronavirus as racist. During a recently concluded briefing, Trump pointed out that no other president has done more for Asian, Latino, and Black employment than he has.