Joe Biden claims Donald Trump is America's first racist president

Democratic candidate Joe Biden has claimed that Donald Trump is the United States's first racist president.

Mr Biden’s remarks came during a virtual town hall, when a questioner complained of racism surrounding the coronavirus outbreak and mentioned Mr Trump referring to it as the "China virus”.

The former vice president said: ”The way [Mr Trump] deals with people based on the colour of their skin, their national origin, where they're from, is absolutely sickening,"

He added: ”No sitting president has ever done this. 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.”

Trump speaks during a news conference at the White House
AP

Mr Trump responded to Mr Biden's comments by pointing to his administration's efforts passing criminal justice reform legislation and expanding opportunity zones, as well as the low unemployment numbers for minority groups before the coronavirus outbreak.

"I've done more for Black Americans than anybody with the possible of exception of Abraham Lincoln," the president said at a White House briefing on Wednesday.

"Nobody has even been close."

Mr Biden also suggested that the US leader is using race "as a wedge" to distract from his mishandling of the pandemic.

Many presidents — including the nation's first, George Washington — owned slaves.

President Woodrow Wilson, the country's 28th president, is having his name removed from Princeton University's public policy school after recent protests against institutional racism and police brutality.

Wilson, who served in the early 20th century, supported segregation and imposed it on several federal agencies.

Katrina Pierson, a senior adviser for Mr Trump's re-election campaign, said in a statement that "no one should take lectures on racial justice from Joe Biden."

Mr Biden has vowed that, if elected, he will begin addressing institutional racism within his first 100 days of taking office.

This was not the first time he's suggested Mr Trump's actions were racist.

Mr Biden has built his campaign around the election being a "battle for the soul of the nation”.

He says he felt compelled to run for president after he saw Mr Trump respond to a deadly 2017 white supremacist attack on counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, by saying there were "some very fine people" on both sides.

When Mr Trump said last year that four Democratic congresswomen of colour should "go back" to their countries, Mr Biden called it a "flat, racist attack."

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