VP Joe Biden Unleashes Stern Criticism of 'Ignorant' Donald Trump's PTSD Remarks

"He's not a bad guy, but how can he be so out of touch," the VP asked.

ByABC News
October 4, 2016, 9:44 AM

— -- Vice President Joe Biden condemned Donald Trump’s comments about veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, calling the Republican presidential nominee “an ignorant man” whose remarks show he’s "completely uninformed.”

“Where in the hell is he from?” Biden asked at a campaign rally for Hillary Clinton in Sarasota, Florida, Monday. “No, no, no, no. This is deadly earnest.”

Trump suggested Monday that soldiers who suffer from mental health issues might be weaker than those who don't.

Watch the second presidential debate, co-moderated by ABC News’ Martha Raddatz, on ABC News and ABCNews.com at 9 p.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 9.

Biden said, “Over 200,000 coming home with unseen wounds. Twenty suicides a month. I don’t think he was trying to be mean. He is so thoroughly completely uninformed."

Biden, whose late son, Beau, served in Iraq, grew animated and angry as he talked about a young captain who had risked his own life when he pulled someone out of a burning Humvee.

“When I went to pin [a Silver Star] on him in front of the entire brigade, he stood and looked at me and said, ‘Sir, I don’t want the medal. I don’t want the medal.’ You know why? He said he died. ‘He died, Mr. Vice President. I don’t want the medal.’ How many nights does that kid go to sleep seeing that image in his head, dealing with it?” Biden said.

In an interview on CNN’s "New Day" that aired today, Biden repeated the story about the captain and said his staff checks with the Pentagon every day to report back to him exactly how many troops are killed and injured.

“[Trump] is an ignorant man. This guy says things he has no idea, but he's not a bad man. But his ignorance is so profound. So profound,” Biden said. “What's this say about a guy who doesn't have any notion of that? Look at what these kids are going through. Look at the sacrifices they're making. And look what they go to sleep dreading.

“That [captain] probably goes to sleep every night with a nightmare. And this guy [Trump] doesn't understand any of that? How can he not understand that?” Biden said sternly, growing visibly angry.

“How can he be so out of touch? He's not a bad guy, but how can he be so out of touch, and ask to lead this country?”

During the Clinton rally, the vice president repeated his mantra that the most sacred obligation the United States has is “to care for those we send to war and to care for them and their families when they come home.”

“What are the chances this guy will honor that commitment?” Biden asked of Trump. “I’m serious about it. It’s not that he just doesn’t get it. He has no interest in finding out.”

Watch FULL LIVE COVERAGE of the second presidential debate, co-moderated by ABC News’ Martha Raddatz, at 9 p.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 9. Coverage and analysis of the debate will begin on ABCNews.com/Live at 7 p.m. ET.

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