Amid a back-and-forth with Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden predicted increasing “desperation” from others in the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

Mr. Sanders’ team has recently been hammering Mr. Biden for past comments in which the former vice president talked about cuts to Social Security, and top Sanders surrogate Nina Turner wrote a recent opinion piece in The State newspaper in South Carolina talking about how Mr. Biden has let down black voters.

“I have more black support than anybody and nationally it’s always been that way,” Mr. Biden told WISTV, an NBC affiliate in South Carolina, over the weekend. “And so I think it’s just desperation on the part of some of the candidates who are now going back 35 years and try and pick a sentence that was said or wasn’t said.”

“You’re going to see increasing desperation. I’m used to this,” he said. “I guess it’s worse if you don’t have a target on your back.”

Mr. Biden said he’s been declared dead “about 10 times” since he entered the race.

“And the good news is the bad news,” he said. “People know me. So, the things they say about me that aren’t true, it’s hard to make it stick, and the things that are true are sticking more easily.”

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