Susan Walsh / ASSOCIATED PRESS Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at the Poor People's Moral Action Congress presidential forum in Washington, D.C., on June 17, 2019.

WASHINGTON ― Former Vice President Joe Biden realizes Republicans won’t necessarily help him enact his agenda if he wins the White House in 2020 — but he said Monday that he could persuade them.

“You got to make it clear to Republicans that you understand on some things there’s a rationale for compromise,” Biden said at a candidate forum here.

Biden previously said Republicans would become more accommodating once President Donald Trump was out of office. “With Trump gone, you’re going to begin to see things change,” he said earlier this month, a claim that drew mockery from Biden’s former Democratic colleagues in the Senate.

On Monday, speaking at a presidential forum organized by the civil rights leader Rev. William Barber and his advocacy organization, the Poor People’s Campaign, moderator Joy-Ann Reid asked Biden how he would get anything done if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) remained in charge.

Biden acknowledged that some thought his faith in Republicans was “naive.” He reiterated his belief in bipartisan cooperation but also said compromise is not always possible. In that case, his strategy would be to persuade the public.

“You have to go out and beat these folks if they don’t agree with you by making your case, and that’s what presidents are supposed to do, to persuade the public,” Biden said.

Still, he touted his own powers of persuasion on Capitol Hill, reminding the audience that he helped win over three Republican senators on the 2009 stimulus bill.

“You try to persuade,” he said. “Doesn’t mean you can do it all the time. But it kept us from going into a depression.”