Joe Biden’s Accusations

Ella Bear, Staff Writer

Recently, over eight women have accused former vice president Joe Biden for inappropriately touching and invading their personal space. His behavior includes clasping women’s hands, grabbing their shoulders, and touching his forehead to theirs.

Two days after the first accusation by Lucy Flores, a candidate for Nevada lieutenant governor back in 2014, who said that during a campaign rally Biden put his hands on her shoulders and kissed her hair, Biden released a statement. In the two minute long video, he stated that although shaking hands, hugging and grabbing people by the shoulder is “just who I am,” social norms have changed and in the future he’ll be mindful of other people’s personal space.

There has been tremendous reactions to the incident, with many people coining the term “Creepy Joe” to describe the behavior. Simply searching “Creepy Joe” online shows many results with videos and pictures of him acting in the same way towards other women and girls many times in the past. President Trump has also added to the trend by releasing an edited video of Biden’s apology with hands and Trump’s head around Biden while he spoke. Additionally a pro-Trump group has released an ad with children watching an interview between CNN’s Jake Tapper and Nevada state legislator Lucy Flores describing the way she felt during the encounter with Biden.

One would think that these accusations would affect Biden if he entered the presidential field. However, according to a new INSIDER poll conducted over the weekend on SurveyMonkey Audience, 52% of Democratic primary voters would not characterize the accusations as disqualifying for Biden’s bid for presidential candidate of the Democratic party. Meanwhile, 16% were unsure, 13% characterized them as disqualifying and 18% did not follow the allegations.