Medical experts are in agreement that social distancing is critical to preventing further spread of the virus, which has infected more than 50,000 people in the U.S. and killed more than 600. Nearly every state has issued some combination of orders to close schools and nonessential businesses or directed residents to shelter in place.

Trump has recently become impatient with the federal guidance for Americans to hunker down, citing the dire impact on the economy. But epidemiologists have warned that it's still too soon to allow parts of the country to return to business as usual, arguing that if there's a resurgence of infections it could cause even greater economic damage.

On Tuesday, an alternately heated and emotional Biden contended that if Trump wants to get the economy moving again by loosening the guidance, he will do so at his own risk. "If you want to ruin the economy for a long, long, long time, let's go ahead and see this thing continue by having it burst out again and so we haven't even flattened the curve out," Biden said.

"I know you know this,” he told MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace. “I apologize but it's frustrating to hear this president speak. He should stop talking. Let the experts speak.”

Trump has come under fire more than once during the coronavirus crisis for getting out in front of scientific experts, hyping unproven drugs as potential miracle cures and understating the speed at which a vaccine will become available — and then being gently corrected by the members of his coronavirus task force.

Biden applauded the health experts Trump has surrounded himself with — notably Dr. Anthony Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Trump, he said, should heed their recommendations when deciding when to loosen social distancing guidance — something the president refused to commit to doing in a news briefing the night before.