Former Vice President Joe Biden, who may or may not be running for president in 2020, still doesn’t seem to understand why President Donald Trump defeated 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in the first place.

“I was asked by a reporter, ‘Well, if [Trump] changed, would you be supportive?’ Absolutely,” Biden said during an interview on Thursday with “CBS This Morning.” He added, “But stop this phony populism, which is about ‘I have a problem, it’s because of that immigrant or that black guy.’ Or stop this, this naked nationalism, which, instead of making us number one, is making us last.”

Biden topped CNN’s recent 2020 Democratic primary presidential field poll, earning 33 percent support from Democratic voters among a crowded field of potential candidates.

The next-highest rumored contender, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), was chosen by only 13 percent of the Democratic voters surveyed. Other much-discussed top contenders included liberal firebrands Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Cory Booker (D-N.Y.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), each in single digits.

“I don’t think about the polling data. I think about whether or not I should run based on very private decisions relating to my family and the loss of my son and what I want to do with the rest of my life,” Biden said. “But I don’t think of it in terms of can I win, can I — will I lose. That’s not part of the calculation.”

Yet the Democratic Party, which is running on a virulently anti-Trump platform for the 2018 midterm elections, seeks to undo what the president has accomplished in nearly 21 months in office.

And Biden showed during his “CBS This Morning” interview that he still doesn’t get why Trump won against nearly all odds and doesn’t understand how populism and nationalism resonated so deeply with many of Trump’s voters.

Related: ‘We’ll Never Know’ Truth on DOJ ‘Partisanship’ if Schiff Chairs Intel Panel

“I think our basic American values are at stake. Decency, honor, giving hate no safe harbor, telling the truth, understanding there’s something bigger than you,” Biden said. “It really is under assault. It is one of those things that I think that only a minority of the American people share his view about that is so dismissive of the basic American mores.”

“I mean, look what the world is seeing lately. They see Charlottesville and what he says. They see him embracing these dictators around the world attacking our allies. They see in a situation where he talks about [how] he has a policy of literally ripping children from their parents at the border, for God’s sake,” Biden added. “I mean, it’s not who we are.”

Who do you think would win the Presidency?

By completing the poll, you agree to receive emails from LifeZette, occasional offers from our partners and that you've read and agree to our privacy policy and legal statement.

Biden was referring to Trump’s comments that “both sides” were to blame for the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, when white nationalists clashed with liberal activists. He also rejected Trump’s attempts to maintain diplomatic ties with nations such as Saudi Arabia, which came under fire this week for the death of a Washington Post journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.