US President Biden says Trump should have injected himself with bleach

Washington: Taking a dig at his predecessor, US President Joe Biden has said that Donald Trump should have injected himself with a little bleach, for suggesting during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic that a disinfectant 'injection inside' could help protect against the deadly virus.

Biden, the Democratic Party's presumptive candidate for the presidential elections in November, made the remarks during an election fundraiser hosted by prominent Indian-American billionaire and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla on Friday.

During the fundraiser, the 81-year-old leader made several jokes about his 77-year-old Republican Party rival Trump, asserting that the former president 'is in trouble, and he knows it'.

"Remember him saying the best thing to do is to inject a little bleach into your arm… I wish he had done it a little bit himself," Biden said, in an apparent jibe about Trump's comment during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump, president at that time, had said during a White House coronavirus task force briefing, "...I see the disinfectant where it knocks it (the virus) out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? So, it'd be interesting to check that."

"We’ll never forget about the pandemic. He knew (it) was serious, and he acknowledged it ... but wanted to not — just keep everybody from responding to it," Biden said during the fundraiser.

He joked further and said, "Not everyone is feeling the enthusiasm these days. The other day this guy walked up, and said 'I’m in real trouble, short on cash, I don’t know what to do'. I said, 'Donald, I can’t help you'." Asserting that chaos is nothing new for Trump, Biden said that Trump's four-year presidency from 2017 was chaos.

"Trump is trying to make the country forget how dark things — and unsettling they were as he left the office. But we’re not going to forget," he said.

Biden is set to face Trump in the November 5, 2024, presidential election, a rematch between them since their 2020 clash.