President Obama has no intention of getting rid of Vice President Biden as his running mate, the White House said Thursday.

Republicans are being “ridiculous” and are trying to “distract attention” with their focus on Vice President Biden and his controversial comments earlier this week, White House press secretary Jay Carney said.

“They know that what they're saying about this is ridiculous," Carney said at a briefing with reporters, adding that it's an “obvious” attempt to take attention away from policy issues.

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Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign lashed out at Biden and President Obama this week after the vice president in an address in Virginia said the Republican’s approach to the financial industry would “put y’all back in chains.” Biden made the remarks in front of a racially mixed audience.

Obama’s campaign has repeatedly said Biden was simply talking about financial regulation.

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“The vice president was talking about Wall Street reform,” Carney said Thursday.

“The vice president's intention was clear.”Asked if Obama regrets the choice of words Biden used, Carney, who served as communications director to Biden before taking the podium job, called it “trivial,” and said “nobody took it as a reference to anything” except those who are trying to "make something out of nothing.”

Carney said it was an attempt to distract from the message because “the other side is losing these policy debates pretty overwhelmingly.”

The White House spokesman said Obama “absolutely understands and knows what the vice president was talking about.”

Asked if Obama was frustrated by the distraction over the last few days, Carney replied, “Not that I saw.”

Obama met this morning with Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonOvernight Defense: Government funding bill butts up against deadline | Pentagon reports eighth military COVID-19 death | Trump, Pentagon collide over anti-diversity training push Voters split on whether Trump, Biden will win first debate: poll New Monmouth poll finds Biden with 6-point lead MORE.

Sen. John McCain John Sidney McCainCindy McCain joins board of Biden's presidential transition team Meet the first woman to run for president Jill Biden shuts down Jake Tapper's question about husband's 'occasional gaffe' MORE (R-Ariz.) earlier this week said Obama would be better off replacing Biden with Clinton as his running mate. McCain said he did not expect that to happen, however. He said he thought Clinton hoped to run for president in 2016.

Asked about McCain's remarks Wednesday, Carney said: "One place I would not go for advice on presidential running mates is John McCain."