Joe Biden Camp Responds to Accusations of Inappropriate Touching at Campaign Event
Former Vice President Joe Biden does not recall allegations of inappropriate touching that date from 2014 and were reported Friday by a former Democratic Nevada politician.
Former lieutenant governor candidate and Nevada Assembly member Lucy Flores detailed the allegations Friday in an article in The Cut.
The Biden camp replied Friday with a statement saying neither the former vice president, who is now mulling a run for president in 2020, nor his staff, recalls any such incident.
“Vice President Biden was pleased to support Lucy Flores’s candidacy for lieutenant governor of Nevada in 2014 and to speak on her behalf at a well-attended public event. Neither then, nor in the years since, did he or the staff with him at the time have an inkling that Ms. Flores had been at any time uncomfortable, nor do they recall what she describes,” Bill Russo, a Biden spokesman, said according to Politico.
“But Vice President Biden believes that Ms. Flores has every right to share her own recollection and reflections, and that it is a change for better in our society that she has the opportunity to do so. He respects Ms. Flores as a strong and independent voice in our politics and wishes her only the best,” Russo said.
In her article, Flores said Biden touched her while they were waiting to go on stage at a campaign event in 2014. At the time, she was 35.
“I felt him get closer to me from behind. He leaned further in and inhaled my hair. I was mortified. I thought to myself, ‘I didn’t wash my hair today and the vice-president of the United States is smelling it. And also, what in the actual f—? Why is the vice-president of the United States smelling my hair?'” she wrote.
But it did not end there, she wrote.
“He proceeded to plant a big slow kiss on the back of my head. My brain couldn’t process what was happening. I was embarrassed. I was shocked. I was confused,” she wrote. “I wanted nothing more than to get Biden away from me.
“I had never experienced anything so blatantly inappropriate and unnerving before.”
As of Saturday, CNN and The New York Times reported that Flores had not returned attempts to get her comment on Biden’s statement. She did, however, tweet about the context of her comments on the 2020 presidential race.
To set the record straight, I haven’t endorsed any presidential candidate including Sanders. But even if I had endorsed someone, that doesn’t erase the multiple pictures, articles & the well known “open secret” abt Biden’s inappropriate behavior. This shld been addressed long ago https://t.co/g3fwEGZC3H
— Lucy Flores (@LucyFlores) March 30, 2019
In her essay, Flores said she went public with her revelations because Biden might run for president. Some observers on Twitter said her allegations may have dimmed Biden’s luster among Democrats who had put him at the top of early-season polls.
I bet Biden won’t run. He wont want issues like this to besmirch his career. https://t.co/PDSgbFX0RO
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) March 29, 2019
Biden has a public history of uncomfortable/inappropriate/ problematic touching and hugging and kissing. It’s been caught on cameras. We’ve all seen it. And stories like these will pop up during a campaign, should he choose to run. https://t.co/wCo5gwLVqA
— Sam Stein (@samstein) March 29, 2019
Joe #Biden2020 who is basically a moderate republican is a disgrace to the left and doesn’t deserve a pass for his past or creepy behavior just because of a friendly likable personality. Open your eyes. You just don’t do that to random people. #CreepyUncleJoe pic.twitter.com/5fqnXqG18k
— The Leftist Patriot (@PatriotLeftist) March 30, 2019
In a speech earlier this month, Biden called himself a “tactile politician.”
“I always have been, and that gets me in trouble as well, because I think I can feel and taste what is going on,” he said.
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