Obama’s VP Joe Biden, mulling whether to run for president in 2020, has made his first public appearance after a number of women accused him of touching them inappropriately. In it, Biden attempted a joke about consent.
On stage at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers’ conference in Washington, DC, “creepy uncle Joe” Biden, as he is known among his detractors, hugged the union’s president Lonnie Stephenson.
“I just want you to know I had permission to hug Lonnie,” he said.
“By the way, he gave me permission to touch him,” he said to drive the intended hilarity home later, as he shook hands with some children.
Not everyone found it funny.
Biden, who is gearing up to become a Democratic frontrunner in 2020 (though he hasn’t announced he is running yet) is facing accusations of improper touching from seven women who accuse him of touching them improperly. The fact that he chose to joke about touching protocol has raised a few eyebrows on social media.
Images of Biden hugging various women and appearing to be sniffing their hair have long been in the public eye, but with the accusations mounting and 2020 on the horizon, he decided to explain it: in a video, he said it’s his way of “connecting with people” and promised to be “more mindful” in the future, now that “social norms have begun to change.”
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After Friday’s address, reporters asked Biden if he thought he owed the women he had touched inappropriately a personal apology, he said he had apologized enough: “I made it clear that if I made anyone feel uncomfortable, I feel badly about that. It was never my intention, ever, ever.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t understand more. I’m not sorry for any of my intentions, I’m not sorry for anything that I have ever done,” he said.
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