Anyone who has been awake knows that Joe Biden has a problem with touching and nuzzling women in public in a very creepy manner. It’s why the nickname “Creepy Uncle Joe” could be for him what “crooked Hillary,” “low energy Jeb” or “little Marco” were for other Trump opponents should Biden run for president and get the Democrat nomination.
We saw if when he rubbed the shoulders of Ashton Carter’s wife in full camera view:
And again with Chris Coons’ young daughter, again in full camera view, an attempt to plant a kiss on her cheek as she move away from him:
Let’s view that in slow-motion:
And that’s not the least of it. There are plenty of Biden Creeping compilations on YouTube, and he has come under criticism going back many years for his Disturbing Groping of Young Girls and Women and his woman-touching habit.
It so bad, even Biden jokes he is a very “tactile” person:
“I’m a tactile politician, always have been. That’s what gets me in trouble as well.”
But those were very public appearance right in front of the cameras. Hey, “Joe being Joe” was the excuse. Indeed, how could Ashton Carter and Chris Coons just stand there while Creepy Uncle Joe nuzzled their women?
In the age of Al Franken being forced to resign for groping and uninvited kissing, Biden somehow got a pass (pun intended). But that may change, because a women has come forward with a story of uninvited kissing from Biden in 2014.
The woman is Lucy Flores, a liberal Nevada politician and activist:
She went public today:
The Cut has the story, An Awkward Kiss Changed How I Saw Joe Biden:
In 2014, I was the 35-year-old Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in Nevada. The landscape wasn’t looking good for my party that year. There were no high-profile national races to help boost turnout, and after the top candidate bowed out of the governor’s race, “None of the Above” ended up winning the Democratic primary.So when my campaign heard from Vice-President Joe Biden’s office that he was looking to help me and other Democrats in the state, I was grateful and flattered. His team offered to bring him to a campaign rally in an effort to help boost voter turnout. We set the date for November 1, just three days before election day….I found my way to the holding room for the speakers, where everyone was chatting, taking photos, and getting ready to speak to the hundreds of voters in the audience. Just before the speeches, we were ushered to the side of the stage where we were lined up by order of introduction. As I was taking deep breaths and preparing myself to make my case to the crowd, I felt two hands on my shoulders. I froze. “Why is the vice-president of the United States touching me?”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 fuck? Why is the vice-president of the United States smelling my hair?” 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. There is a Spanish saying, “tragame tierra,” it means, “earth, swallow me whole.” I couldn’t move and I couldn’t say anything. I wanted nothing more than to get Biden away from me. My name was called and I was never happier to get on stage in front of an audience.By then, as a young Latina in politics, I had gotten used to feeling like an outsider in rooms dominated by white men. But I had never experienced anything so blatantly inappropriate and unnerving before. Biden was the second-most powerful man in the country and, arguably, one of the most powerful men in the world. He was there to promote me as the right person for the lieutenant governor job. Instead, he made me feel uneasy, gross, and confused. The vice-president of the United States of America had just touched me in an intimate way reserved for close friends, family, or romantic partners — and I felt powerless to do anything about it.
Why finally come forward? Biden’s history was part of it, particularly now that his may run for president, according to Flores:
Time passed and pictures started to surface of Vice-President Biden getting uncomfortably close with women and young girls. Biden nuzzling the neckof the Defense secretary’s wife; Biden kissing a senator’s wife on the lips; Biden whispering in women’s ears; Biden snuggling female constituents. I saw obvious discomfort in the women’s faces, and Biden, I’m sure, never thought twice about how it made them feel. I knew I couldn’t say anything publicly about what those pictures surfaced for me; my anger and my resentment grew.
Had I never seen those pictures, I may have been able to give Biden the benefit of the doubt. Had there not been multiple articles written over theyears about the exact same thing — calling his creepy behavior an “open secret” — perhaps it would feel less offensive. And yet despite the steady stream of pictures and the occasional article, Biden retained his title of America’s Favorite Uncle. On occasion that title was downgraded to America’s Creepy Uncle but that in and of itself implied a certain level of acceptance. After all, how many families just tolerate or keep their young children away from the creepy uncle without ever acknowledging that there should be zero tolerance for a man who persistently invades others’ personal space and makes people feel uneasy and gross? In this case, it shows a lack of empathy for the women and young girls whose space he is invading, and ignores the power imbalance that exists between Biden and the women he chooses to get cozy with.
For years I feared my experience would be dismissed. Biden will be Biden. Boys will be boys. I worried about the doubts, the threats, the insults, and the minimization….
Will this doom Biden the way it doomed Al Franken? Will “Creepy Uncle Joe” skate by because he has a long history of nuzzling women in public?
Of course, we have not yet heard Biden’s side of the story, and as we know, it’s possible Flores’ story is not true or wasn’t as bad as she said.
Biden’s initial reaction via a spokesperson was somewhat less than an outright denial:
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.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.
Biden isn’t officially running and may not run for president. Consider this a warning shot across Biden’s bow, letting him know it’s going to be ugly.
If Biden in on the fence about running, this is the sort of thing that may scare him away.
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