Former Vice President Joe Biden caught himself before he used the F-word on Thursday to describe the racists who take comfort in some of the words used by President Donald Trump. Instead, Biden paused and admonished himself to “watch my language” before ultimately settling on “folks.” 

Biden was speaking at a roundtable discussion about his plan to reopen the economy amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. But he also took some shots at Trump’s divisiveness, saying the president was pitting Americans against each other based on race.

Biden recalled Trump’s comments after the violent clashes between white supremacists and protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. 

“He said there were ‘very fine people’ on both sides,” Biden said. “No president in the history of the United States of America has ever said anything remotely like that.”

Biden also noted that the president’s words matter.

“When a president speaks, no matter how good or bad he is, people listen. And when he speaks and gives credibility to these racist f-,” and that’s when he caught himself: