ST. LOUIS — Joe Biden brought his resurgent bid for president to St. Louis on Saturday, telling a cheering downtown crowd that “we’re going to unite this party and unite this country.”

Kicking off a flurry of campaigning in the run-up to Tuesday’s Missouri presidential primary, the former vice president reveled in his sudden reemergence as the front-runner in the race for the Democratic nomination.

“The press, the pundits had declared ... Biden’s campaign is dead,” he told several hundred people in Kiener Plaza.

“But South Carolina had something to say about that,” he said, referring to his big victory in that state’s primary the previous Saturday. Then he noted that, after a string of Super Tuesday wins, he now has the lead in national convention delegates.

In his 10-minute talk, Biden aimed his criticism at Republican President Donald Trump, not Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the other remaining major Democratic aspirant.

Biden said he’s running on “a positive progressive vision for the future” and not to “turn this primary into a campaign of negative attacks.”

“Because that will only re-elect Donald Trump if we go that route,” he said.

He added that Democrats must defeat Trump “but we can’t become like Trump.” Presidents, Biden said, have to fight “but they also have to forgive and ... to join people together.”