Joe Biden on Saturday criticized Donald Trump's administration for not handling accused pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's case very well 'from the beginning' as Democratic presidential candidates demanded answers on how the billionaire could have committed suicide while in federal custody.

The president's administration has several ties to Epstein and Attorney General William Barr refused to recuse himself from overseeing the case despite questions about conflicts of interest.

'The Trump administration has not handled this well from the very beginning,' Joe Biden said at a gun forum in Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday in response to a question from DailyMail.com.

'I do think in our prison system when someone is on suicide watch that should be carefully monitored,' the former vice president said. 'And so it seems like there must have been something missed here.'

'But it's passed. I have empathy for his family and all the victims,' Biden noted.

Joe Biden said the Trump administration has not handled the Epstein case very well

Democratic presidential candidates like Elizabeth Warren demanded answers on how Jeffrey Epstein could have committed suicide while in federal custody

Biden's rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination were more blunt in their calls for a looking into what happened.

'I'd like to see an investigation to understand how this was permitted to happen when he was incarcerated,' Senator Elizabeth Warren told DailyMail.com during an appearance at the Everytown for Gun Safety Action forum in Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday.

'The system broke down here. He should have been held for trial and his victims should have had a chance to testify against him,' she added. 'There should have been a public airing of what happened, who helped him and who was involved in it. And now all that's been cut off.'

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said there should be a 'full investigation' as Epstein's suicide was 'way too convenient.'

'There should be a full investigation immediately. It's way too convenient from what I'm seeing. We know that there was either an assault or a suicide attempt just days ago. How on earth is he not under special protection? And what's really going on here? I think that's a question that we must get a full answer to,' he said in a response to a question from DailyMail.com at the gun forum on Saturday.

The mayor said the investigation into the sex trafficking Epstein was accused of should go forward.

'But beyond that, what a lot of us want to know is what did he know; how many other millionaires and billionaires were part of the illegal activities that he was engaged in? Well, that information didn't all die with Jeffrey Epstein,' he said.

'That needs to be investigated too. We've been given a roadmap, that horrible, immoral, illegal actions occurred and involve some of the richest people in this country. We need prosecutors to follow that map and go after anyone who was horribly trafficking in under-aged girls. That's unacceptable,' he noted.

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar said there should be a congressional investigation into both Epstein's suicide and his crimes.

'I don't think this suicide should be used to just say, Well, this is overnight, the bad guy died. I think there were other bad people involved in this,' said Klobuchar, who's a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees the Justice Department and Bureau of Federal Prisons.

'It really bothers me that, I would say star witness and creepiest defendant, no longer can testify,' she said of the Epstein case at the gun forum.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said there should be a 'full investigation' as Epstein's suicide was 'way too convenient'

Senator Amy Klobuchar said both Epstein's suicide and his crimes should be investigated

New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand called for a congressional review of the case

Epstein allegedly committed suicide in his Manhattan jail cell on Saturday morning just 24 hours after a New York court unsealed 2,000 pages of new documents that implicated a number of high-profile men in his sex trafficking scandal.

The former financier, 66, was reported to have been taken off CCTV surveillance that morning at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Manhattan. He had been on 24-hour watch after he was hospitalized following an unsuccessful suicide attempt two weeks ago.

The nature and timing of Epstein's death has prompted widespread speculation and initiated calls for a in investigation.

Trump's presidential rivals led the call for a probe.

'I think his crimes were horrendous. But I don't think this suicide should have happened. And mostly I still want to get to the bottom of this,' Klobuchar said.

She added that Congress should look into 'all of the connections that this man had. And who is involved in this because this was a traffic king.'

'This was trafficking, sex trafficking, and it appears there were a number of people involved,' she said.

New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand also said there should be a federal investigation.

'It should be reviewed,' she said at the Everytown for Gun Safety Action forum.

The Democratic senator said her preference would have been for Epstein to face justice.

'I think the crimes that were alleged against him were so deeply troubling. To have allegations of child trafficking, sexual abuse, sexual assault. Those are every hard things, I imagine, to live with,' she said of the allegations against Epstein. 'We would have preferred, obviously, for him to face justice.'

Congressman Tim Ryan said Epstein's death needs to be examined.

'I don't know how a high-profile person like that was able to commit suicide in his jail cell, or however that happened. So we need to definitely look into that for sure,' he told DailyMail.com at the Iowa State Fair.

'And then also we've got to make sure that there's justice for everybody included in the potential criminal activity,' he added.

Senator Kamala Harris, who also sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, declined to comment on the matter.

''I don't know enough about the Epstein case,' she told DailyMail.com at the Iowa State Fair. 'I just really don't.'

Epstein was in a facility overseen by the Bureau of Federal Prisons, which is under Trump's Justice Department, led by Attorney General William Barr.

Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell Saturday morning

Senator Kamala Harris said she didn't know enough about Epstein's death to comment on the case

Congressman Tim Ryan said Epstein's death needs to be examined

Barr said on Saturday the DoJ's Inspector General will investigate what happened.

'I was appalled to learn that Jeffrey Epstein was found dead early this morning from an apparent suicide while in federal custody. Mr. Epstein's death raises serious questions that must be answered. In addition to the FBI's investigation, I have consulted with the Inspector General who is opening an investigation into the circumstances of Mr. Epstein's death,' he said in a statement.

Epstein has several ties to President Trump's administration. He was denied bail last month in his case. Manhattan prosecutors charged him with sex trafficking of girls as young as 14.

The billionaire pedophile claimed he introduced Trump to his current wife Melania and partied with him at his Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Trump said last month that he hasn't spoken to Epstein since his guilty plea and that his relationship with him was no different than that of anyone else.

'I knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him,' the president said. 'I was not a fan.'

Barr declined to recuse himself from Epstein's case, which he had considered because Epstein previously hired lawyers from the firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Barr served as counsel to that firm before becoming attorney general.

Additionally Barr's father, Donald Barr, hired Esptein in the 1970s to teach teenagers at the prestigious Dalton school, where Donald Barr was headmaster. Esptein, a college dropout, taught for two years there.

The Trump administration has several ties to Epstein; Trump and his then-girlfriend Melania Knauss as seen with Jeffrey Epstein and socialite Ghislaine Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago in 2000

Attorney General William Barr didn't recuse himself from Epstein's case despite questions about possible conflicts of interest

Trump's Labor Secretary Alex Acosta resigned over the Epstein case

The Justice Department was reviewing how Epstein avoided prosecution in 2008 on federal sex-trafficking offenses in Florida and the decades of prison time that he could have faced if he'd been convicted.

The revelation of the deal led to the resignation of Trump's Labor Secretary Alex Acosta.

Acosta was the top federal prosecutor in southern Florida and approved a deal that allowed Epstein to plead guilty to lesser crimes - two state charges of soliciting a prostitute. He served 13 months in a Florida state prison but was allowed out during the day to conduct business.

'I do not think it is right and fair to this administration's Labor Department to have Epstein as the focus rather than the incredible economy that we have today,' Acosta said in July when he resigned.

Trump said he would have been happy to keep Acosta on the job.

'Thought he did a fantastic job. He explained it. He made a deal people were happy with ... now they're not,' the president said at the time. 'In so many ways I hate what he's saying now cause we're gonna miss him.'