Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Wednesday launched a sharp attack on United States President Donald Trump, calling him the first racist to be elected to the top post, The Washington Post reported.

Biden’s comment came in response to a healthcare worker expressing concern over how the US president has continuously blamed the Asians for the spread of the coronavirus. “The way he [Trump] deals with people based on the colour of their skin, their national origin, where they’re from, is absolutely sickening,” Biden said during a virtual town hall.

“No sitting president has ever done this,” Biden added. “Never, never, never. No Republican president has done this. No Democratic president. We’ve had racists, and they’ve existed, they’ve tried to get elected president. He’s the first one that has.”

Biden hit out at Trump for referring to the coronavirus as “China virus” and “Kung flu”. “Look what he’s doing now,” Biden said. “He’s blaming everything on China. . . . He’s using it as a wedge.”

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Trump’s Senior Adviser Katrina Pierson said Biden’s comments were “an insult to the intelligence of Black voters”, adding that the president has worked hard to empower all Americans, according to Reuters.

Trump has repeatedly blamed China for spreading the coronavirus to other countries. “It’s a nasty, horrible disease that should’ve never been allowed to escape China, but it did,” he said on Tuesday. “It infected the world, and the world is suffering. But we’re going to get it taken care of, and we’re helping lots of other countries.”

The US president has also maintained that his administration is handling the pandemic successfully, even as the country is witnessing a sharp increase in coronavirus cases. US is the world’s worst-hit country with 39,69,850 cases and over 1.43 lakh deaths.