Wayne claimed that he was "pretty articulate and respectful" in approaching Biden and "didn't try to raise any feathers." But Biden nevertheless "kind of just went off the deep end," Wayne said, adding: "I saw that he was digging a hole, and I just kind of let him talk for a while to dig the hole."

The testy exchange on the day of Michigan's Democratic primary, which also saw Biden urge Wayne not to be "such a horse's ass," quickly went viral online and was seized upon by both Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign as well as Republican operatives who criticized Biden for lashing out at a Midwestern industrial worker in coarse terms.

But Biden supporters and staffers promoted the encounter as an example of the candidate's unvarnished speaking style and a defense of his decadeslong efforts to restrict access to assault weapons. The back-and-forth clearly did not inhibit Biden in the state's nominating contest — he went on to win Michigan over Sanders by a wide margin — and Wayne said Wednesday he was not offended by Biden's use of profanity during their brief discussion.

"In this day and age, it's a language. I'm not going to hate him for that, and I use it all the time," Wayne said. "Most people use it all the time, and I don't think that's something to beat the guy up about. But he could have curved what he said a little bit, sure."

Although Wayne acknowledged that he did not vote for Donald Trump in 2016, he declined to say who he would support in November's general election, which is increasingly likely to become a battle between the incumbent Republican president and the Democrat with whom he tussled Tuesday.

"I'm respectfully going to keep that to myself," Wayne said. "It's my right as a United States citizen. I'm going to practice that."