Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden on Wednesday said President Trump’s rhetoric tracks closely with words in an anti-immigrant manifesto that authorities have linked to the accused El Paso shooter, and that Mr. Trump can’t be counted on to rise to the occasion and unite the country after last weekend’s shootings in Texas and Ohio.

“How far is it from Trump’s saying this ‘is an invasion’ to the shooter in El Paso declaring ‘his attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas?’ Not far at all,” Mr. Biden said in a speech in Burlington, Iowa.

Mr. Biden, the 2020 Democratic presidential front-runner, said that “in both clear language and in code,” “this president has fanned the flames of white supremacy in this nation.”

“How far is it from the white supremacists and Neo-Nazis in Charlottesville — Trump’s ‘very fine people’ — chanting ‘You will not replace us’ — to the shooter at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh saying Jews ‘were committing genocide to his people?’ Not far at all,” he said.

Mr. Biden’s remarks came on the same day that Mr. Trump was scheduled to visit El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, where mass shootings over the weekend have left a total of more than 30 people dead.

Mr. Biden said that during tough times in the past, American presidents have stepped up and “opposed hate,” pointing to examples such as President George W. Bush’s visiting a mosque after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and President Barack Obama’s response to a shooting at a church in South Carolina in 2015.

“We don’t have that today,” he said. “We have a president who has aligned himself with the darkest forces in this nation.”

Mr. Biden said that “it’s up to us.”

“We’re living through a rare moment in this nation’s history,” he said. “Where our president isn’t up to the moment. Where our president lacks the moral authority to lead. Where our president has more in common with George Wallace than George Washington.”

“We are almost 330 million Americans who have to do what our president can’t,” he said. “Stand together. Stand against hate. Stand up for what — at our best — this nation believes.”

The president, asked by reporters Wednesday about Mr. Biden’s comments, responded, “Joe is a pretty incompetent guy. Joe Biden has truly lost his fastball, that I can tell you.”

Later in the afternoon, Mr. Trump tweeted, “Watching Sleepy Joe Biden making a speech. Sooo Boring! The LameStream Media will die in the ratings and clicks with this guy. It will be over for them, not to mention the fact that our Country will do poorly with him. It will be one big crash, but at least China will be happy!”

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