Sen. Elizabeth Warren says she wasn’t referring to former Vice President Joseph R. Biden when she said in a speech in New York City earlier this week that people shouldn’t choose a candidate they don’t believe in because they’re “scared” to do anything else.

“No. It’s talking about whether we’re going to turn backwards and just say, the only problem is Trump. If we get rid of Trump, everything is going to be just fine,” the Massachusetts Democrat said Tuesday evening on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.”

Ms. Warren has risen into second place behind Mr. Biden in some of the recent public polling on the 2020 Democratic presidential field and drew an estimated 20,000 or so people to the speech on Monday evening.

“Yes, there’s a lot at stake in this election. And I know, people are scared,” she had said at the New York event. “But we can’t choose a candidate we don’t believe in just because we’re too scared to do anything else.”

Much of polling on the 2020 field has shown potential Democratic primary voters pick Mr. Biden as the candidate most likely to defeat President Trump in 2020, and that they value a candidate perceived to have a better shot to oust the president than one they might agree with more on the issues.

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