Vice President Biden was not content Monday to level just one criticism at Donald Trump, and settled instead for a barrage of attacks, including that the GOP nominee is a nasty, dangerous, willfully ignorant demagogue.

Trump's taking pleasure in his reality TV catchphrase ("You're fired!") reveals a disturbing and cruel character, the vice president said at a campaign rally in Scranton, Pa., for Hillary Clinton.

"What bothers me the most about Donald Trump is his cynicism is unbounded," Biden told the crowd in his childhood hometown. "No matter where you were raised, how could there be pleasure in division and you're fired?"

"He's trying to tell us he cares about the middle class? Give me a break. It's such a bunch of malarkey," he added. "He doesn't have a clue."

On issues regarding national security, Biden said Trump is more oblivious than usual.

"No major party nominee in the history of the United States has known less or been less prepared to deal with our national security than Donald Trump," he said. "And what absolutely amazes me is that he doesn't seem to want to learn it."

He continued, referring to a moment last month when Trump suggested the Russians should help the U.S. find Hillary Clinton's unauthorized private State Department emails.

"This guy's shame has no limits," said Biden.

"Even if he were joking — which he isn't," he said, "what an outrageous thing to say."

Biden also took on Trump suggesting that his administration might not necessarily stand by its NATO allies.

"Every president since Harry Truman has looked toward a Europe whole, free and at peace," the vice president said.

"And one of the most consequential people trying to undo that," he said in reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin, "is a man Donald Trump has said he admires."

In fact, Biden added, Trump's seeming affinity for brutal dictators, including Saddam Hussein, is disturbing all around.

"This guy would've loved Stalin," he said to cheers and applause.

Biden also accused the GOP nominee of directly endangering the lives of U.S. troops stationed overseas by claiming President Obama "founded" the Islamic State.

"If my son were still in Iraq," the vice president, "and I say to all those who are there, the threat to their life has gone up a couple clicks. It has gone up a couple clicks."

"Ladies and gentlemen," Biden added, "does [Trump] have any idea the adverse consequence these outlandish comments have on our allies, our friends and the physical safety of our troops? Trump is already making our country less safe."

Though Biden is known more popularly in media as a kindly, affectionate grandfather, he is no stranger to going nuclear on political opponents. As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Biden joined in the the heated and infamously bitter charge against Robert Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court.

From there, partisan obstructionism for Supreme Court nominees became the norm.

"Under Mr. Biden's leadership, holding up nominations to the nation's appeals courts … became a routine exercise," the Wall Street Journal's Collin Levy wrote.