WATCH: Full Context of Joe Biden Calling Trump America’s First Racist President

Former Vice President and current Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden caused a commotion when he said President Donald Trump was the “first” racist to be elected president, in remarks that were first widely reported by The Washington Post, but video from the event adds valuable context.

The remark that got a lot of attention was Biden’s claim that “We’ve had racists, and they’ve existed, they’ve tried to get elected president. He’s the first one that has.”

Many took issue with the statement, pointing out that there have been many presidents who owned slaves, instituted explicitly racist policies, held racist views, and at least one person — Trump — took issue with the description by pointing to decreased minority unemployment prior to what he literally called “the China plague” during his response to an accusation of racism.

In fact, Biden campaign senior adviser Symone Sanders was among those who pointed out the pre-Trump racist presidents in America’s past, in a statement which read:

There have been a number of racist American presidents, but Trump stands out – especially in modern history – because he made running on racism and division his calling card and won. He deliberately foments both, intentionally causing indescribable pain because he thinks it advantages him politically. The George Wallaces of our country’s history who have run on these hate-filled themes have lost.

Biden made his controversial remark during a virtual event with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

Suk Kim, an Asian-American home care provider, told Biden about her journey as an immigrant from South Korea, and that after forty years of being a “friendly person,” she no longer greets strangers because “I know people blame Asians for the pandemic.”

She told a story about being made uncomfortable at a Costco, where she said white people in the line “looked me up and down as if I wasn’t human, or some kind of a germ,” and said that “Trump is part of the reason the white people say the racist things, because he thinks it’s okay. But I don’t think it’s okay.”

As Ms. Kim told her story, she repeatedly stopped to apologize for her “broken English” and nervousness, and Biden reassured her to “Take your time, it’s okay.”

That’s when Biden began the response that has been the subject of so much criticism:

What you’re doing makes such a gigantic difference to people’s lives, Suk. I’m not trying to be nice to you, I’m being deadly earnest about it, I genuinely mean it, and what President Trump has done in going, he’s spreading racism, the way he deals with people based on the color of their skin, their national origin, where they’re from, is absolutely sickening.

No sitting president’s ever done this. Never never never. No Republican president has done this, no Democratic president. We’ve had racists, and they’ve existed and they’ve tried to get elected president, he’s the first one that has. And the way he pits people against one another is all designed to divide people, not pull them together.

The exchange continued for several more minutes, during which Biden told Ms. Kim “Don’t let anybody convince you you are not American in every single way. It’s an idea, we are an idea, it’s not based on an ethnicity or a race.”

“I’m sorry to get so worked up about it but it makes me so angry when I find that people, based on the color of the skin or the national origin, are somehow viewed in a different way,” Biden said, then turned back to Trump.

“And look what he’s doing now. He’s blaming everything on China, he’s blaming everything on the Chinese, he’s blaming everything on, and people don’t make a distinction, as you well know, from a South Korean and someone from Beijing. They make no distinction, it’s Asian. And he’s just using it as a wedge,” Biden said, and went on to conclude by telling Kim, “You deserve nothing but praise.”

Trump briefly stopped using the term “China virus” over concerns about racist incidents involving Asian-Americans, but then resumed and escalated to the racist term “Kung Flu,” and included “China plague” in his response to Biden’s remarks.

Watch the full exchange above via SEIU.