Joe Biden spoke on a number of issues with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, including Donald Trump insulting the pope and Republican opposition to a President Obama Supreme Court nominee. | AP Photo Biden: It's 'very possible' Trump will be GOP nominee

Vice President Joe Biden believes Donald Trump could end up clinching the Republican nomination, while adding that he “would be surprised” if Trump got elected.

"I think it is very possible he could be nominated and depending on how this all plays out. I would take him seriously in terms of being able to win because he's appealing to fear," Biden told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow in an interview on Thursday.


Biden in the past has rebuked Trump for his inflammatory rhetoric, but Thursday’s comments were his most direct comments about the real estate mogul’s chances in the presidential race.

The vice president also defended the pope — and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — in his own pregame show before the Democratic contenders took the stage on MSNBC.

"Pope Francis? Trump? It's not a hard call for me. It’s not even close," Biden told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, weighing in on the confrontation between the pontiff and the Republican presidential candidate, who exchanged barbs over immigration policy earlier Thursday.

Biden, a Catholic, veered off script in defending McConnell, who has directly said the Senate will not seriously consider President Barack Obama's nominee to replace Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court.

Biden said McConnell has been "intimidated" by the far right into taking such a hard line. Biden, who served in the Senate with the Kentucky conservative for over two decades, posited that McConnell was aiming to get out ahead of Sen. Ted Cruz. He said McConnell doesn't believe in delaying the nomination "in his heart."

Still, Biden warned, if hearings don't start soon and the nomination is pushed back beyond the next presidential election, there won't be a new Supreme Court justice until "next June or July."

Biden, who became close friends with the conservative jurist's family, plans to attend Scalia's funeral on Saturday. Yet Biden, former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he has come to regret voting to confirm Scalia, comparing the choice to managing a sports team.

"It's kind of like, you know, I wished I'd picked so-and-so on my team because, good, look at all the home runs he hit," Biden said. "You know what I mean? That's what I regret is he was so successful in taking the court a direction different than I thought it should be taken."

Maddow also asked Biden about Democrats' hopeful whispers that Obama might nominate him to the high court.

Biden just closed his eyes and laughed.