A former Democratic candidate in Nevada has accused former Vice President Joe Biden of inappropriate conduct during a 2014 campaign rally.
Lucy Flores, a Democratic nominee for the state’s lieutenant governor in 2014, said she was standing by the stage waiting to speak at a rally when Biden rested her hands on his shoulders from behind, approached and smelled her hair.
“I was very embarrassed,” Flores, 39, told New York magazine The Cut. “Then he gave me a strong kiss slowly on the back of my head,” she added.
“My brain could not process what was happening, I was embarrassed, I was shocked and confused and I just wanted Biden to get away from me.”
Joe Biden, who despite not having formalized his candidacy is the favorite to win the Democratic presidential nomination for 2020, It is still unknown what the impact of the accusation might be on Biden’s decision to officially enter the race. It is presumed that the former vice president, 76, could announce his plans in April.
Bill Russo, Biden’s spokesman, said Friday that the Democrat was “delighted” to support Flores’ candidacy but that he did not remember the incident.
“Neither then, nor in later years, he or the staff that was with him at that moment had the slightest idea that Mrs. Flores had felt uncomfortable at some point, nor remember what she describes,” Russo said in a statement. release.
Biden “believes that Mrs. Flores has the right to share her memories and thoughts, and that it is a positive change in our society that has the opportunity to do so,” he said.
Biden’s overconfident treatment of women has been a topic of conversation for years. He is known for touching uncomfortable women, mothers or daughters of senators during the ceremonies of assumption. In 2015, he was questioned about massaging the back of the wife of the new Secretary of Defense, Ash Carter.
Biden’s behavior is once again at the center of attention in the era of #MeToo, the movement against sexual harassment and abuse that led to the fall of dozens of politicians, entertainment figures and businessmen.
At a Democratic Party dinner in Delaware this month, Biden acknowledged that his style has raised questions. “I am a tactile politician, I always was, that is also what gets me in trouble,” Mr. Biden said.
Flores wrote that the Democrat ignores the “imbalance of power” that exists between him and the women he touches. “Even if his behavior was not violent or sexual, it was degrading and disrespectful
