Obama, Biden react to Trump's 'taco tweet'

WASHINGTON, May 7 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama declined to weigh in on presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump's so-called "taco tweet" that created a firestorm online on Thursday.

However, Obama's famously more loose-lipped No. 2, Vice President Joe Biden, did weigh in on Trump's social media foray, saying he wished Trump were "a smarter guy than this."

Trump, who has called for building a wall along the nation's border with Mexico, for the deportation of millions of illegal immigrants, and who kicked off his campaign referring to some Mexicans as "rapists," sent a picture via Twitter of himself eating a taco bowl on Thursday to mark the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo. The tweet included the message "I love Hispanics!"

Obama was asked about the tweet during an appearance in the White House press briefing room on Friday and declined to comment.

"I have no thoughts on Mr. Trump's tweets," Obama said. "As a general rule, I don't pay attention to Mr. Trump's tweets. And I think that will be true, I think for the next six months. So you can just file that one."

Biden, speaking to a Washington, D.C., television station, did address the tweet, pleading with Trump to pursue a higher level of discourse now that he is the presumptive GOP nominee.

"I wish he were a smarter guy than this," Biden said. "I hope he reaches the point where he figures out that it's not a game show and he talks in earnest about where he would take the country. Because that is the kind of debate the public deserves."

Some Republicans defended the taco tweet, which was ridiculed by liberals online as a ham-handed attempt to mend fences with the Latino community.

Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus said the tweet shows Trump is "trying."