Former Vice President Joe Biden Joe BidenBiden says voters should choose who nominates Supreme Court justice Trump, Biden will not shake hands at first debate due to COVID-19 Joe Biden should enact critical government reforms if he wins MORE pushed back Sunday on Sen. Bernie Sanders Bernie SandersTrump, Biden will not shake hands at first debate due to COVID-19 Sanders tells Maher 'there will be a number of plans' to remove Trump if he loses Sirota reacts to report of harassment, doxing by Harris supporters MORE’s (I-Vt.) claim that Biden’s record in the Senate would make him an easy target for President Trump Donald John TrumpBiden says voters should choose who nominates Supreme Court justice Trump, Biden will not shake hands at first debate due to COVID-19 Pelosi: Trump Supreme Court pick 'threatens' Affordable Care Act MORE in a general election, according to CNN.

"If you are, if you're a Donald Trump and you got Biden having voted for the war in Iraq, Biden having voted for these terrible, in my view, trade agreements, Biden having voted for the bankruptcy bill. Trump will eat his lunch," Sanders said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times editorial board last week.

Asked about Sanders’s comment in Iowa, Biden responded, "Tell him come and I'll give him some dessert at the White House."

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Biden and Sanders, who have been two of the leading candidates in most polls of the Democratic candidates, have increasingly sparred as the field slowly tightens ahead of the Iowa caucuses. In the most recent Democratic debate, Biden asked Sanders to “put our hand down for a second” during an exchange over health care policy, with Sanders quipping, “I’m just waving to you, Joe, saying hello.”

Sanders went on to claim that Biden’s health care plan would keep the “status quo,” which Biden denied. Biden’s plan, in contrast to Sanders’s universal "Medicare for All" proposal, would create a public option similar to the one floated but ultimately left out of the Affordable Care Act.