“There are so many nicknames that I’m inclined to give this guy. We could just start with clown,” Biden told about three dozen supporters at a $1,000-to-$2,800 per person fundraiser in Columbia, South Carolina. “When he says these ridiculous things he says, I mean this, I put my hand up and say, ‘everybody knows who you are’ because they do know.”

Trump regularly assigns derogatory nicknames to political foes. He calls Biden “Sleepy Joe” on Twitter and has tagged many of the other top Democratic contenders.

A donor urged the former vice president to respond with his own nicknames for Trump, but Biden said he’d aim to keep discourse at a higher level. “The only place he has any confidence is in the mud. The only thing he doesn’t know how to respond to is issues and specifics,” he said.