Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event in Nashua, New Hampshire, February 4, 2020.

Joe Biden gave his most frank assessment yet Wednesday of his poor showing in the Iowa caucuses as he urged New Hampshire voters to help him regain his footing in the 2020 presidential race.

During remarks in Somersworth, New Hampshire, the former vice president also targeted the two men leading in Iowa as delayed results trickle in from Monday's botched caucuses. Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., are vying for first place in the Hawkeye State with 71% of precincts reporting.

Biden stands in a distant fourth place behind Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., according to partial data released by the Iowa Democratic Party. He entered Iowa as a 2020 Democratic primary front-runner after leading national polls for most of the race.

"I am not going to sugarcoat it, we took a gut punch in Iowa. The whole process took a gut punch," Biden said about the first-in-the-nation nominating contest, which was dogged by issues with an app used to report results. "But, look, this isn't the first time in my life I've been knocked down."

Biden later said an "awful lot of folks" want to "write off this campaign."

"But I tell you what, they've been trying to do that from the moment I entered the race," he said. "Well, I got news for them, I'm not going anywhere. And I'm counting on New Hampshire. We're going to come back."