What exact words did Joe Biden use to accuse Donald Trump of racism?
Executive summary
Joe Biden has used several explicit phrases accusing Donald Trump of racism, including calling Trump “the country’s ‘first’ racist president” [1] and saying Trump had “spread” racism and used race “as a wedge” [1]. Biden also accused Trump of inflaming racial tensions and of “deepening the nation’s racial divide,” saying racism in America is an institutional “white man’s problem” and arguing that part of the solution is to hold Trump responsible [2].
1. What Biden actually said — the clearest, attributable quotes
The most direct, widely cited formulation appears in reporting from The Guardian and other outlets: Biden called Donald Trump the country’s “first” racist president and said Trump’s treatment of people “based on the colour of their skin is ‘absolutely sickening’” [1]. Biden also told audiences that Trump had “spread” racism and was using race “as a wedge” to distract from policy failures such as handling of the pandemic [1]. Separate coverage records Biden arguing racism is an institutional “white man’s problem” and explicitly linking responsibility for deepening racial divides to Trump, saying the way to attack the issue is to defeat and shame him [2].
2. Where and when these words were reported
The “first racist president” formulation is tied to a virtual town hall organized by the Service Employees International Union and was reported by The Guardian in July 2020 [1]. Biden’s broader framing that racism is an institutional “white man’s problem” and that Trump had emboldened racists was reported by the Associated Press and PBS in 2021, where Biden argued defeating Trump was part of addressing racial injustice [2] [3].
3. Context Biden provided when making the accusations
Biden framed these accusations in response to specific incidents and rhetorical patterns: for example, when a questioner raised Trump’s use of “China virus” and other racially charged comments, Biden tied those remarks to a broader pattern of “the spread of racism” and said Trump used race to divide Americans [1]. Reporting also shows Biden connected Trump’s policies and rhetoric to concrete outcomes — alleging Trump had deepened racial divides and emboldened racists — and he urged political remedies such as electoral defeat and public shaming [2].
4. Alternative perspectives and pushback
Not all outlets or political actors accept Biden’s language as neutral fact. The AP noted Trump’s campaign dismissed the accusation as a partisan play and said Democrats were “falsely accusing their opponent of racism,” framing Biden’s statements as political strategy [2]. The Trump campaign has long pushed counter-claims that it has improved economic outcomes for Black Americans and accused Biden of “white liberal racism” — an entirely different rhetorical frame that seeks to flip the race argument [4] [5].
5. How Biden’s words have been reused and contested
Biden’s phrases have been amplified and repurposed in campaign fights and media cycles. Opponents cite Biden’s own awkward or outdated language in past speeches (e.g., his recollection of segregation-era terms) to question his rhetorical authority on race, and supporters cite Biden’s direct labels of Trump as evidence of a moral stance against racist rhetoric [6] [7]. Reporting shows this exchange is part of an ongoing political tug-of-war in which both sides assert competing narratives about who harms racial justice more [8] [9].
6. Limits of available reporting and unanswered specifics
Available sources document Biden calling Trump the country’s “first” racist president, accusing him of spreading racism, and linking Trump to deepened racial divides, but they do not present a single, exhaustive transcript compiling every time Biden used the word “racist” about Trump or every surrounding sentence [1] [2]. If you are seeking an exact verbatim transcript of a particular speech or moment beyond the quoted phrases cited above, that specific transcript is not found in the current reporting provided here (not found in current reporting).
7. Bottom line for readers
If your goal is to quote Biden precisely, the clearest, source-backed short quotes are: that Trump is the country’s “first” racist president; that Trump has “spread” racism; and that he used race “as a wedge” — each cited directly in reporting from The Guardian and corroborated by contemporaneous outlets [1] [2]. Expect opposing narratives from the Trump campaign and allied outlets that portray Biden’s language as partisan attack or that counterattack by accusing Biden of his own racial missteps [4] [5].