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Joe Biden, top Democratic contender for White House, faces accusations of inappropriate touching
Joe Biden’s aides have alleged there may be a “smear” underway against the former vice-president.
Former US Vice-President Joe Biden was on Monday accused of inappropriate touching by a second woman raising questions about his qualification to run for the Democratic presidential ticket. He is currently the top contender for the nomination in polls even though he has yet to announce his run.
Amy Lappos, a Connecticut woman, told a local news publication, the Hartford Courant, the incident took place at a fundraiser in 2009. “It wasn’t sexual, but he did grab me by the head,” she said. “He put his hand around my neck and pulled me in to rub noses with me. When he was pulling me in, I thought he was going to kiss me on the mouth.”
Lucy Flores, a Nevada state legislature, was the first. She alleged last Friday Biden had kissed the back of her head at a campaign rally in 2014, which had made her feel “uneasy, gross and confused”.
Neither woman has said the physical contacts were sexual.
The former vice-president had said in a statement to the first accusation, “In my many years on the campaign trail and in public life, I have offered countless handshakes, hugs, expressions of affection, support and comfort.
“And not once -- never -- did I believe I acted inappropriately. If it is suggested I did so, I will listen respectfully. But it was never my intention.”
There was no comment to the second accuser. But Biden’s aides have alleged there may be a “smear” underway against the former vice-president with photoshopped pictures of him in seemingly inappropriate contact with women, as there have been some indeed. Former aides also came to his defence recounting their own experience working with him.
Biden has been politics for more than 40 years now, starting out as one of the youngest US senator. He ran for president twice — 1987 and 2007 — but did not make it through the primaries. And he joined Barack Obama as a running mate after his last failed attempt in 2007 and went on to serve two terms as vice-president.
Biden is expected to announce his third run sometime this month and his allies are reported to have said his plans to run, if he really intends to, will not be impacted by these allegations.
Most of his prospective rivals for the ticket said after the first accuser, only when asked, they believed Flores and they support her right to be heard and that Biden will have to address these questions if he does get into the race. But asked if he should run, or not, they have said it was his decision.
Bernie Sanders, who is in second place in polls behind Biden, said he wasn’t sure if one such incident should disqualify the vice-president from running. But there is a second accuser now and Sanders has not yet had a follow-up comment.
Biden is already facing questions about his handling of a congressional hearing in 1991, as chairman of the senate judiciary committee, on sexual harassment charges Anita Hill brought against President George H W Bush’s Supreme Court justice nominee Clarence Thomas.
Republicans on the committee had attacked Hill personally and savagely, to discredit her and her account to protect Thomas, a nominee of a Republican president. But Biden, a Democrat, was seen as not having done enough to prevent those attacks, especially so post #MeToo.
A year after leaving office, he sought forgiveness, with an eye possibly on a presidential run. “I wish I had been able to do more for Anita Hill,” he said to TeenVogue magazine in December 2017. “I owe her an apology.”
