Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton will win the general election if real estate mogul Donald Trump is the Republican nominee, Vice President Biden said Tuesday.
{mosads}Biden made his prediction a day after Trump vowed he would block all Muslims from entering the U.S. if he’s elected, a proposal the vice president called dangerous for the country.
“I don’t know what his motive is, but I know what he’s preaching is a very, very dangerous brew for America,” Biden said of Trump during an interview with Bloomberg.
“Is this just a guy doing ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ for himself?” Biden said, referring to Trump’s former reality show. “Is this just a guy who’s an entertainer? It may have started there, but, I now think, now, he wants to be president. But I don’t think there’s much chance of that.”
But if Trump is nominated, Biden said, Clinton “wins in a walk.”
The vice president questioned whether Trump believes in the attention-grabbing proposals he’s laid out, including building a massive wall along the southern U.S. border and forcing Mexico to pay for it.
“I believe he’s smart enough to know half of what he’s saying makes no sense,” Biden said. “Build a wall? He’s got to build a wall that’s the best wall and the highest wall? A lot of this is showmanship.”
While Trump’s bombastic style has propelled him to the top of the GOP field, Biden predicted he won’t have staying power.
“I don’t think it’s sustainable,” he said.
On the heels of terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., Trump said Monday he would “shut the door” on all Muslims who want to enter the United States.
The proposal drew widespread condemnation from Democrats and Republicans alike and consumed the attention of the news media.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said earlier Tuesday that Trump’s proposal should disqualify him from serving as president.
Almost all of Trump’s GOP rivals rushed to distance themselves from his remarks, a sign the party fears his mere presence in the race could endanger their chances of taking back the White House next fall.
Biden decided in October he would not challenge Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination after deliberating for months after the death of his son Beau.
Despite his prediction that Clinton would beat Trump in a landslide, the vice president said he would not endorse the former secretary of State or her primary rivals, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.
“I’d let the party decide; I would not weigh in,” he said.