Joe Biden jabs at Donald Trump by saying ‘competent’ Republicans are running against him

President Joe Biden spoke to reporters before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, on Monday (Credits: Reuters)

President Joe Biden appeared to hit at ex-President Donald Trump by saying there are ‘competent’ Republican candidate running against him in 2024.

Biden, 80, who is seeking reelection, opened up about the GOP field on the White House lawn on Monday.

‘I haven’t been able to keep up with it. It’s moving so quickly,’ said Biden.

‘I’m not being facetious. I’m being very serious. I haven’t focused on it that much.’

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced his 2024 presidential bid last week (Picture: Reuters)

Biden then said that ‘it seems like a lot of competent candidates are trying to get the nomination, so we’ll see’.

The president did not elaborate on who the ‘competent candidates’ were.

Trump, 76, who announced his 2024 bid in November, is still the frontrunner for the Republican nomination.

Biden spoke five days after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, 44, entered the race with a rocky start due to technical difficulties on his chosen Twitter Spaces platform to announce.

Senator Tim Scott (middle) and ex-President Donald Trump (left) have announced their presidential campaigns (Picture: AP)

Trump has 53.2% of GOP voters’ support, according to a RealClearPolitics average of recent surveys. DeSantis trails him in second place with 22.4% support.

Among other Republican candidates who have announced are former Governor Nikki Haley, who is third with only 4.4% support, according to the average of polls. Also in the race are Senator Tim Scott, former Governor Asa Hutchinson and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. DeSantis is viewed as the strongest challenger to Trump.

Meanwhile, Biden has the backing of about 60% of Democrats, a CNN poll last week shows. A far second is activist Robert F Kennedy who has roughly 20%, followed by spiritual adviser Marianne Williamson with just 8%.

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley speaks during a town hall campaign event on May 17 (Picture: AP)

Trump sounded off against Biden and DeSantis and his ongoing battle with Disney on his Truth Social platform on Monday morning. Trump wrote that ‘Ron DeSanctimonious just stated, without correction on Fox & Friends, that I was “backing” Disney’ and that it was ‘Wrong!’

‘Also, in the polls, I am beating Biden by a lot,’ Trump wrote.

Biden, who in the past avoided saying his predecessor’s name, has recently started attacking Trump more directly, particularly on Twitter.

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