United States President Donald Trump on Thursday mocked former Vice President Joe Biden as “weak, both mentally and physically”, and asked him not to “threaten people”. Trump’s response to “Crazy Joe Biden” came two days after Biden suggested he would “beat the hell out of” the president for the way he speaks of women.

On Tuesday, Biden had said at University of Miami: “They asked me would I like to debate this gentleman [Trump], and I said no. I said, ‘If we were in high school, I’d take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him.’”

Trump responded on Twitter, saying: “Crazy Joe Biden is trying to act like a tough guy. Actually, he is weak, both mentally and physically, and yet he threatens me, for the second time, with physical assault. He doesn’t know me, but he would go down fast and hard, crying all the way. Don’t threaten people, Joe!”

Biden had made the statement while referring to a video tape featuring Trump that emerged a month before the presidential elections in 2016. He had made similar remarks against Trump during the election campaign.

“The press always ask me, ‘Don’t I wish I were debating him?’” Biden had said at a campaign rally in 2016. “No, I wish we were in high school – I could take him behind the gym. That’s what I wish.”