Joe Biden urged to study history after calling Trump the first 'racist' US president

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has sparked anger and calls to revise American history after he said that Donald Trump was the first 'racist president.'

During a virtual town hall event hosted by the Service Employees International Union that took place on Wednesday night, Biden claimed that Trump's constant reference to the coronavirus as the 'China virus' or 'Wuhan flu' were stoking racial divisions in the United States.

What President Trump has done in his spreading of racism, the way he deals with people based on the color of their skin, their national origin, where they’re from — is absolutely sickening.

The former vice president continued, adding that no president in history has ever done anything like this, claiming the racists have tried to become president but none of them were elected until Trump came along.

No sitting president has ever done this. Never, never, never. No Republican president has done this. No Democratic president. We've had racists, and they've existed, they've tried to get elected president. He's the first one that has.

I’m sorry to get so worked up about it. It makes me so angry when I find that people, based on the colour of their skin or their national origin, are somehow viewed in a different way. Look what (Trump's) doing now. He's blaming everything on China. He's blaming everything on the Chinese.

Although few would deny that Trump has constantly used racist sentiments throughout his presidency, Biden's statement that Trump is the first racist to hold the office of the White House would seem contentious. Not long after he made the statement, social media was flooded with examples of other presidents who had used racist policies or even owned slaves during their time as president.

While Biden comments might have come across as misjudged and revisionist, Trump certainly did his opponent a favour not long afterward. When asked about Biden's comments during a press briefing, Trump claimed that he had done more for racial minorities than anyone else while also proving Biden right by referring to coronavirus as the 'China plague.'

With the US election looming on the horizon, polling data shows that Trump's chances of winning another are looking slim with some odds giving him just a 33 per cent chance of winning.