Donald Trump has claimed that Joe Biden, a lifelong practising Catholic, is “against God”.
Speaking to a small crowd at an airport in Cleveland, Ohio, Trump also suggested the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee would “hurt God” if elected.
The attack came a day after the Trump campaign manipulated an image of Biden with his head down and in prayer at a church to make him appear down and dejected.
Trump’s comments appear to be driven by polls indicating the president and Biden are neck-and-neck in Ohio. Trump carried the crunch state by 8 points in 2016.
Trump said Biden would “take away your guns”, adding: “No religion, no anything, hurt the Bible, hurt … God. He’s against God, he’s against guns. He’s against energy, our kind of energy. I don’t think he’s going to do too well in Ohio.”
Biden has spoken of his faith a number of times, and said it helped him through personal tragedies, such as the deaths of his wife and children.
Andrew Bates, a spokesman for the Biden campaign, said: “Joe Biden’s faith is at the core of who he is; he’s lived it with dignity his entire life, and it’s been a source of strength and comfort in times of extreme hardship.
“Donald Trump is the only president in our history to have tear-gassed peaceful Americans and thrown a priest out of his church just so he could profane it – and a Bible – for his own cynical optics as he sought to tear our nation apart at a moment of crisis and pain.
“And this comes just one day after Trump’s campaign abused a photo of Joe Biden praying in church to demean him, in one of the starkest expressions of weakness throughout this whole campaign.”