Former Vice President Joe Biden Joe BidenPelosi slams Trump executive order on pre-existing conditions: It 'isn't worth the paper it's signed on' Hillicon Valley: Subpoenas for Facebook, Google and Twitter on the cards | Wray rebuffs mail-in voting conspiracies | Reps. raise mass surveillance concerns Fox News poll: Biden ahead of Trump in Nevada, Pennsylvania and Ohio MORE said Tuesday that his White House bid would not be “a third term of Obama.”

"I want to earn this on my own. This is not a third term of Obama,” he told MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski during an interview on “Morning Joe.”

"A lot of people want to know about your relationship with President Obama. Are you in contact?" Brzezinski asked. "You worked with him for eight years. You're buds. Why no endorsement?"

Biden again said he never asked Obama to endorse his run for the White House, something he made clear when he entered the presidential race. In the MSNBC interview, he said that he didn't "want to put him in that spot."

ADVERTISEMENT

“The world has changed. It's different. We have the same value set, he and I. And, you know, I don't think we gave him enough credit. He's a guy that our kids could look up to and they did look up to.”

He added: ”But it's a different world. The same things don't apply. But I do keep in contact with him. I see him. Our daughters — my granddaughter and his daughters are best friends."

During the interview, Brzezinski asked Biden if he was ready to take on President Trump Donald John TrumpSteele Dossier sub-source was subject of FBI counterintelligence probe Pelosi slams Trump executive order on pre-existing conditions: It 'isn't worth the paper it's signed on' Trump 'no longer angry' at Romney because of Supreme Court stance MORE in the general election following a rocky performance in the first Democratic primary debate last month.

“I know it will be an ugly campaign … but I’m not backing down at all from him,” Biden said. “I’m not gonna get down in the dirt with him. That’s the only place he knows how to fight.”

He added, "I’m just going to continue to talk about what he’s doing, why it’s so damaging to America and, as my mother would say, I’m not going to take any guff from him.”