Stephen Colbert razzes Joe Biden about his many gaffes. Biden slyly pokes him back.

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/The Late Show)

On Tuesday night, The Late Show poked fun at former Vice President Joe Biden and his many, many gaffes.

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On Wednesday night's show, Stephen Colbert asked Biden about his gaffes in person, recounting some and asking him, for the record, "Are you going nuts?" "Look, the reason I came on the Jimmy Kimmel show is I'm not," Biden shot back playfully, earning a laugh from Colbert. "Fine," he said. "That's going to make the rest of this easier." Biden said "it's fair to go after a political figure for anything," including his own gaffes, but he drew a distinction between substantive gaffes and the kind he said he makes, about, say, the "essence" of other people's valor.

Colbert asked him about his assertion to NPR that "the details are irrelevant" about a story he tells about pinning medals on a reluctant service member. "Those details are irrelevant when the point I was making is absolutely accurate," Biden said, but details do matter "if the details that you're talking about would affect the outcome of something that is about to happen or should happen."

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Earlier, Biden explained why he is running for president — President Trump's reaction to the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, and to "restore the soul of this country" — and why he thinks he's doing so well on this his third run for the top job: "My dad used to have an expression, he'd say, 'Joey, don't compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative.'" He also gave his analysis of where the U.S. is a country, how it got here, and where it needs to go next.

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In the "lightening round," Biden defended his policies, said he last talked to former President Barack Obama in August, and agreed to put him on the Supreme Court, though he speculated Obama would say no. Watch below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.