BUSINESS INSIDER
"Elizabeth Warren says Joe Biden 'needs to answer' for inappropriate touching allegations"
Joe Perticone
30 MARCH 2019
Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who is running for president in 2020, addressed the recent article by former Nevada assemblywoman Lucy Flores claiming that former Vice President Joe Biden inappropriately kissed and touched her during a 2014 campaign event.
Warren became the first 2020 candidate to address the accusations, saying Biden needed to answer for them, but admitted she was not entirely familiar with the specific claim.
"So I don't know anything about this," Warren said.
"But obviously if there's a problem, then Joe Biden needs to answer."
Warren made the comments Friday night to a group of reporters at a campaign event in West Des Moines, Iowa, according to local news reports.
The campaign event was her third of the day.
Biden's behavior has been thrust back into the spotlight as he considers running for president in 2020, which would be the third attempt of his political career.
Still, many national polls place Biden at the very top for Democratic voters.
According to a recent INSIDER poll, Biden benefits from near-universal name recognition, with 82% of respondents having heard of him.
In addition, Democratic voters are most confident in Biden's ability to unseat President Donald Trump in the general election, with 71% believing he would win in a head-to-head matchup.
Just 5% said they think Biden would lose to Trump.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... P17#page=2
AMERICA'S FIGHTING BULLDOG JOE BIDEN
Re: AMERICA'S FIGHTING BULLDOG JOE BIDEN
ABC News
"Former lawmaker calls alleged touching and kissing by Biden 'awkward and disturbing'"
31 MARCH 2019
The former Nevada lawmaker who says former Vice President Joe Biden inappropriately touched and kissed in 2014 told ABC News she remembers the encounter as "awkward and disturbing."
Lucy Flores, a social justice advocate who served as a Nevada assemblywoman, said in an interview on "Good Morning America" that when Biden campaigned for her when she was running for lieutenant governor, he allegedly leaned in behind her, smelled her hair and gave her a slow kiss on the back of the head.
"I didn't even know what to do," she said in the interview.
"I didn't know how to react.
"It was the vice president of the United States of America," she continued.
"You just don't expect that to happen."
The allegation comes as Biden is publicly weighing a run for president in 2020.
Flores initially came forward with the allegations Friday in an article for New York magazine's The Cut, titled, "An Awkward Kiss Changed How I Saw Joe Biden".
A Biden spokesperson issued a statement to ABC News saying that the potential 2020 candidate did not remember the incident.
“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," the Biden spokesperson wrote.
"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,” the statement continued.
Flores was the 35-year-old Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in Nevada when the alleged incident occurred at a campaign event on Nov. 1, 2014.
"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?'” Flores wrote.
"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 f---?'"
"'Why is the vice-president of the United States smelling my hair?'” Flores' account continued.
"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," she wrote.
"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."
Flores wrote that she had considered Biden to be attending the event in a professional capacity.
"Biden came to Nevada to speak to my leadership and my potential to be second-in-command — an important role he knew firsthand."
"But he stopped treating me like a peer the moment he touched me."
"Even if his behavior wasn’t violent or sexual, it was demeaning and disrespectful."
"I wasn’t attending the rally as his mentee or even his friend; I was there as the most qualified person for the job."
In the interview, Flores called the exchange "awkward and disturbing and weird."
Although Biden has not definitively indicated whether he will run, his past actions are being scrutinized as that of a would-be candidate.
Earlier this week, he drew ire from women's groups after he referenced his oft-criticized treatment of Anita Hill during Clarence Thomas' Supreme Court hearings in 1991.
During the hearings, Hill was dismissed in her testimony about Thomas's alleged sexual harassment by members of the Senate.
At the time, Biden was the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Biden has apologized frequently in public remarks to Hill, whose testimony has been seen in a new light since the #MeToo movement has grown.
On Tuesday, Biden renewed the conversation about his treatment of Hill when he spoke at the “Biden Courage Awards” to honor those who have worked to combat sexual assault on college campuses.
"To this day, I regret I couldn’t come up with a way to get her the kind of hearing she deserved given the courage she showed by reaching out to us,” Biden said at the event, which took place in New York.
In an interview with Elle magazine last September, Hill said, "There are more important things to me now than hearing an apology from Joe Biden."
"I’m okay with where I am."
The former vice president's remarks have renewed calls for an in-person apology to Hill.
In January 2018 he was asked on PBS if he would apologize in person and he said that he hadn’t planned on it.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... P17#page=2
"Former lawmaker calls alleged touching and kissing by Biden 'awkward and disturbing'"
31 MARCH 2019
The former Nevada lawmaker who says former Vice President Joe Biden inappropriately touched and kissed in 2014 told ABC News she remembers the encounter as "awkward and disturbing."
Lucy Flores, a social justice advocate who served as a Nevada assemblywoman, said in an interview on "Good Morning America" that when Biden campaigned for her when she was running for lieutenant governor, he allegedly leaned in behind her, smelled her hair and gave her a slow kiss on the back of the head.
"I didn't even know what to do," she said in the interview.
"I didn't know how to react.
"It was the vice president of the United States of America," she continued.
"You just don't expect that to happen."
The allegation comes as Biden is publicly weighing a run for president in 2020.
Flores initially came forward with the allegations Friday in an article for New York magazine's The Cut, titled, "An Awkward Kiss Changed How I Saw Joe Biden".
A Biden spokesperson issued a statement to ABC News saying that the potential 2020 candidate did not remember the incident.
“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," the Biden spokesperson wrote.
"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,” the statement continued.
Flores was the 35-year-old Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in Nevada when the alleged incident occurred at a campaign event on Nov. 1, 2014.
"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?'” Flores wrote.
"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 f---?'"
"'Why is the vice-president of the United States smelling my hair?'” Flores' account continued.
"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," she wrote.
"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."
Flores wrote that she had considered Biden to be attending the event in a professional capacity.
"Biden came to Nevada to speak to my leadership and my potential to be second-in-command — an important role he knew firsthand."
"But he stopped treating me like a peer the moment he touched me."
"Even if his behavior wasn’t violent or sexual, it was demeaning and disrespectful."
"I wasn’t attending the rally as his mentee or even his friend; I was there as the most qualified person for the job."
In the interview, Flores called the exchange "awkward and disturbing and weird."
Although Biden has not definitively indicated whether he will run, his past actions are being scrutinized as that of a would-be candidate.
Earlier this week, he drew ire from women's groups after he referenced his oft-criticized treatment of Anita Hill during Clarence Thomas' Supreme Court hearings in 1991.
During the hearings, Hill was dismissed in her testimony about Thomas's alleged sexual harassment by members of the Senate.
At the time, Biden was the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Biden has apologized frequently in public remarks to Hill, whose testimony has been seen in a new light since the #MeToo movement has grown.
On Tuesday, Biden renewed the conversation about his treatment of Hill when he spoke at the “Biden Courage Awards” to honor those who have worked to combat sexual assault on college campuses.
"To this day, I regret I couldn’t come up with a way to get her the kind of hearing she deserved given the courage she showed by reaching out to us,” Biden said at the event, which took place in New York.
In an interview with Elle magazine last September, Hill said, "There are more important things to me now than hearing an apology from Joe Biden."
"I’m okay with where I am."
The former vice president's remarks have renewed calls for an in-person apology to Hill.
In January 2018 he was asked on PBS if he would apologize in person and he said that he hadn’t planned on it.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... P17#page=2
Re: AMERICA'S FIGHTING BULLDOG JOE BIDEN
NBC NEWS
"Biden on 'awkward kiss' allegation: 'Not once — never — did I believe I acted inappropriately'"
Allan Smith and Mike Memoli
31 MARCH 2019
Former Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday addressed an allegation that he inappropriately kissed a Nevada candidate for statewide office in 2014, saying in a statement that "not once — never — did I believe I acted inappropriately."
“In my many years on the campaign trail and in public life, I have offered countless handshakes, hugs, expressions of affection, support and comfort," Biden said.
"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."
"I may not recall these moments the same way, and I may be surprised at what I hear."
"But we have arrived at an important time when women feel they can and should relate their experiences, and men should pay attention," he said.
"And I will."
"I will also remain the strongest advocate I can be for the rights of women."
"I will fight to build on the work I’ve done in my career to end violence against women and ensure women are treated with the equality they deserve."
"I will continue to surround myself with trusted women advisers who challenge me to see different perspectives than my own."
"And I will continue to speak out on these vitally-important issues where there is much more progress to be made and crucial fights that must be waged and won."
In a New York magazine piece published Friday, Lucy Flores, the 2014 Democratic nominee for Nevada lieutenant governor, said that before a campaign event where Biden was set to campaign for her and other Democratic candidates, the then-vice president approached her from behind, placed his hands on her shoulders, smelled her hair, and gave her an uncomfortable kiss on the back of the head.
"I felt him get closer to me from behind," Flores wrote.
"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 f---?'"
"'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."
NBC News has not independently verified Flores' allegations with people she says she told at the time.
NBC News also has not yet seen correspondence Flores showed to The Daily Beast that the news site reported "gives credence to Flores’ claim to the extent that it shows it was an incident she talked about before going public this Friday."
The allegation comes as Biden weighs whether to enter the 2020 presidential race.
Already, 2020 Democratic presidential candidates Julian Castro, the former Housing and Urban Development secretary, and Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts senator, have said they believe Flores.
Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, who also is running for the Democratic presidential nomination and whom Flores endorsed during his 2016 presidential bid, said Sunday on CBS’s "Face the Nation" that he had no reason not to believe Flores' allegation.
"And I think what this speaks to is the need to fundamentally change the culture of this country and to create environments where women feel comfortable and feel safe," Sanders said.
"And that’s something, we’ve got to do.”
When asked about the allegation on NBC's "Meet the Press," Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said, "Certainly one allegation is not disqualifying, but it should be taken seriously."
Coming to Biden's defense was Henry Munoz, the co-founder of Latino Victory Project and an organizer of the 2014 campaign rally in question.
Munoz said that he has "thoroughly reviewed photographic documentation from the event, and spoken to nearly every principle in attendance, as well as staff associated with the event."
"To the best of our recollection, at no time were Lucy Flores and Vice President Biden alone."
Munoz said Flores is "a good friend" and Biden is so close to him that he "presided over my own marriage."
Munoz said he firmly believes that "women need to be supported and heard and that there is a reckoning in our culture that is long overdue."
"These are both individuals that I love and respect, and who have been supported by and who have supported the organization I co-founded to lift Latinx candidates," he said.
"Yet at no time were these two leaders alone together and I, and the organization I cofounded and those in attendance, do not believe that circumstances support allegations that such an event took place.”
Flores said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" that she was "shocked" by Biden's alleged behavior and said she believes it is "disqualifying" to his possible presidential bid.
Flores, who said she is a supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., told CNN, "Never do I claim that" the incident she described "rises to the level of sexual assault."
Rather, it was “completely inappropriate” and shouldn't happen in any setting.
A spokesperson for Biden said in a statement Friday that such allegations should be taken seriously but that Biden does not remember the incident.
"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," the spokesperson said.
"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."
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... P17#page=2
"Biden on 'awkward kiss' allegation: 'Not once — never — did I believe I acted inappropriately'"
Allan Smith and Mike Memoli
31 MARCH 2019
Former Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday addressed an allegation that he inappropriately kissed a Nevada candidate for statewide office in 2014, saying in a statement that "not once — never — did I believe I acted inappropriately."
“In my many years on the campaign trail and in public life, I have offered countless handshakes, hugs, expressions of affection, support and comfort," Biden said.
"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."
"I may not recall these moments the same way, and I may be surprised at what I hear."
"But we have arrived at an important time when women feel they can and should relate their experiences, and men should pay attention," he said.
"And I will."
"I will also remain the strongest advocate I can be for the rights of women."
"I will fight to build on the work I’ve done in my career to end violence against women and ensure women are treated with the equality they deserve."
"I will continue to surround myself with trusted women advisers who challenge me to see different perspectives than my own."
"And I will continue to speak out on these vitally-important issues where there is much more progress to be made and crucial fights that must be waged and won."
In a New York magazine piece published Friday, Lucy Flores, the 2014 Democratic nominee for Nevada lieutenant governor, said that before a campaign event where Biden was set to campaign for her and other Democratic candidates, the then-vice president approached her from behind, placed his hands on her shoulders, smelled her hair, and gave her an uncomfortable kiss on the back of the head.
"I felt him get closer to me from behind," Flores wrote.
"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 f---?'"
"'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."
NBC News has not independently verified Flores' allegations with people she says she told at the time.
NBC News also has not yet seen correspondence Flores showed to The Daily Beast that the news site reported "gives credence to Flores’ claim to the extent that it shows it was an incident she talked about before going public this Friday."
The allegation comes as Biden weighs whether to enter the 2020 presidential race.
Already, 2020 Democratic presidential candidates Julian Castro, the former Housing and Urban Development secretary, and Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts senator, have said they believe Flores.
Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, who also is running for the Democratic presidential nomination and whom Flores endorsed during his 2016 presidential bid, said Sunday on CBS’s "Face the Nation" that he had no reason not to believe Flores' allegation.
"And I think what this speaks to is the need to fundamentally change the culture of this country and to create environments where women feel comfortable and feel safe," Sanders said.
"And that’s something, we’ve got to do.”
When asked about the allegation on NBC's "Meet the Press," Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said, "Certainly one allegation is not disqualifying, but it should be taken seriously."
Coming to Biden's defense was Henry Munoz, the co-founder of Latino Victory Project and an organizer of the 2014 campaign rally in question.
Munoz said that he has "thoroughly reviewed photographic documentation from the event, and spoken to nearly every principle in attendance, as well as staff associated with the event."
"To the best of our recollection, at no time were Lucy Flores and Vice President Biden alone."
Munoz said Flores is "a good friend" and Biden is so close to him that he "presided over my own marriage."
Munoz said he firmly believes that "women need to be supported and heard and that there is a reckoning in our culture that is long overdue."
"These are both individuals that I love and respect, and who have been supported by and who have supported the organization I co-founded to lift Latinx candidates," he said.
"Yet at no time were these two leaders alone together and I, and the organization I cofounded and those in attendance, do not believe that circumstances support allegations that such an event took place.”
Flores said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" that she was "shocked" by Biden's alleged behavior and said she believes it is "disqualifying" to his possible presidential bid.
Flores, who said she is a supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., told CNN, "Never do I claim that" the incident she described "rises to the level of sexual assault."
Rather, it was “completely inappropriate” and shouldn't happen in any setting.
A spokesperson for Biden said in a statement Friday that such allegations should be taken seriously but that Biden does not remember the incident.
"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," the spokesperson said.
"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."
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... P17#page=2
Re: AMERICA'S FIGHTING BULLDOG JOE BIDEN
THE HILL
"Susan Rice defends Biden amid allegations of inappropriate behavior"
Michael Burke
2 APRIL 2019
Former Obama administration official Susan Rice on Monday defended former Vice President Joe Biden amid accusations that he has inappropriately touched women, calling him "a dedicated ally, champion and defender of women and all of our rights."
Rice, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and national security adviser under former President Obama, added in a string of tweets that she respects "every woman who chooses to share" her experiences.
"I respect every woman who chooses to share her uncomfortable (and worse) experiences with men."
"Their perspectives must be heard and taken seriously."
"I have worked closely with @JoeBiden for many years."
"In my experience, he is warm and affectionate with women (and men)."
"But never have I found his actions inappropriate or uncomfortable."
"I have always appreciated his kindness and warmth," she tweeted.
"Most importantly, I know @JoeBiden to be a dedicated ally, champion and defender of women and all of our rights."
"There is no one I would rather be with in a foxhole."
"He is one of the most decent, honorable men I have been privileged to work with," she added.
Rice's comments come after a second woman, Amy Lappos, came forward on Monday, saying Biden touched her and rubbed noses with her at a 2009 political fundraiser.
Her allegation followed one brought last week by Nevada state lawmaker Lucy Flores, who wrote in an essay published in New York Magazine's The Cut that Biden touched her shoulders and kissed the back of her head before a Nevada campaign event in 2014.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... P17#page=2
"Susan Rice defends Biden amid allegations of inappropriate behavior"
Michael Burke
2 APRIL 2019
Former Obama administration official Susan Rice on Monday defended former Vice President Joe Biden amid accusations that he has inappropriately touched women, calling him "a dedicated ally, champion and defender of women and all of our rights."
Rice, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and national security adviser under former President Obama, added in a string of tweets that she respects "every woman who chooses to share" her experiences.
"I respect every woman who chooses to share her uncomfortable (and worse) experiences with men."
"Their perspectives must be heard and taken seriously."
"I have worked closely with @JoeBiden for many years."
"In my experience, he is warm and affectionate with women (and men)."
"But never have I found his actions inappropriate or uncomfortable."
"I have always appreciated his kindness and warmth," she tweeted.
"Most importantly, I know @JoeBiden to be a dedicated ally, champion and defender of women and all of our rights."
"There is no one I would rather be with in a foxhole."
"He is one of the most decent, honorable men I have been privileged to work with," she added.
Rice's comments come after a second woman, Amy Lappos, came forward on Monday, saying Biden touched her and rubbed noses with her at a 2009 political fundraiser.
Her allegation followed one brought last week by Nevada state lawmaker Lucy Flores, who wrote in an essay published in New York Magazine's The Cut that Biden touched her shoulders and kissed the back of her head before a Nevada campaign event in 2014.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... P17#page=2
Re: AMERICA'S FIGHTING BULLDOG JOE BIDEN
ISN'T JOE BIDEN A BIT PAST THE POINT OF WHERE HE SHOULD HAVE TO BE TOLD HOW TO CONDUCT HIMSELF AROUND WOMEN?
KEEP YOUR HANDS TO YOURSELF, JOE …
DON'T BE GRABBING WHERE YOU ARE NOT INVITED TO GRAB …
And so ...
ASSOCIATED PRESS
"'Pretend you have a cold': Pelosi advises Biden on women"
By THOMAS BEAUMONT and STEPHEN BRAUN, Associated Press
2 APRIL 2019
WASHINGTON — As former Vice President Joe Biden's camp scrambles to contain any political damage over his past behavior with women, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has some words of advice: Keep your distance.
"Join the straight-arm club," Pelosi told a breakfast hour Washington event on Tuesday.
In other words, keep your handshakes at arms' length and don't be touchy-feely.
"Just pretend you have a cold and I have a cold," Pelosi said.
Pelosi, D-Calif., told the event, which was sponsored by Politico, that Biden "has to understand that in the world we are in now people's space is important to them and what's important is how they receive it, not necessarily how you intended it."
Her remarks came as Biden's aides are striking a more aggressive tone as he considers running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination and faces scrutiny over his past behavior toward women.
In a statement on Monday, Biden spokesman Bill Russo blasted "right wing trolls" from "the dark recesses of the internet" for conflating images of Biden embracing acquaintances, colleagues and friends in his official capacity during swearing-in ceremonies with uninvited touching.
Two women have said Biden touched them inappropriately in the past.
Amy Lappos, a former aide to Democratic Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, said Monday that Biden touched her face with both hands and rubbed noses in 2009.
Former Nevada politician Lucy Flores penned a magazine essay last week in which she wrote that Biden kissed her on the back of the head in 2014.
The developments underscored the challenge facing Biden should he decide to seek the White House.
Following historic wins in the 2018 midterms, Democratic politics is dominated by energy from women.
The allegations could leave the 76-year-old Biden, long known for his affectionate mannerisms, appearing out of touch with the party as the Democratic presidential primary begins.
Lappos told The Associated Press that she and other Himes aides were helping out at a fundraiser in a private home in Hartford, Connecticut, in October 2009 when Biden entered the kitchen to thank the group for pitching in.
"After he finished speaking, he stopped to talk to us about how important a congressional staff is, which I thought was awesome," Lappos said.
She said she was stunned as Biden moved toward her.
"He wrapped both his hands around my face and pulled me in," said Lappos, who is now 43.
"I thought, 'Oh, God, he's going to kiss me.'"
"Instead, he rubbed noses with me."
Biden said nothing, she said, then moved off.
She said the experience left her feeling "weird and uncomfortable" and was "absolutely disrespectful of my personal boundaries."
The Hartford Courant first reported Lappos' assertion.
Russo, Biden's spokesman, didn't directly respond to Lappos, instead referring to a Sunday statement in which Biden said he doesn't believe he has acted inappropriately during his long public life.
The former vice president said in that statement: "We have arrived at an important time when women feel they can and should relate their experiences, and men should pay attention."
"And I will."
Biden hasn't made a final decision on whether to run for the White House.
But aides who weren't authorized to discuss internal conversations and spoke on the condition of anonymity said there were no signs that his team was slowing its preparations for a campaign.
Asked on Monday by the AP about the accusations against Biden, Pelosi said, "I don't think that this disqualifies him from running for president, not at all."
Biden's potential Democratic rivals haven't rushed to back him up.
Over the weekend, presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand came closest to calling out the former vice president.
Warren, a Massachusetts senator, said Biden "needs to give an answer" about what occurred.
Gillibrand, a New York senator, said, "If Vice President Biden becomes a candidate, this is a topic he'll have to engage on further."
Ultraviolet, a women's advocacy group, tweeted: "Joe Biden cannot paint himself as a champion of women and then refuse to listen and learn from a woman who says his actions demeaned her."
"Good intentions don't matter if the actions are inappropriate."
"Do better, Joe."
"And thank you @LucyFlores for coming forward."
Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa. AP Washington Bureau Chief Julie Pace contributed to this report.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... id=HPDHP17
KEEP YOUR HANDS TO YOURSELF, JOE …
DON'T BE GRABBING WHERE YOU ARE NOT INVITED TO GRAB …
And so ...
ASSOCIATED PRESS
"'Pretend you have a cold': Pelosi advises Biden on women"
By THOMAS BEAUMONT and STEPHEN BRAUN, Associated Press
2 APRIL 2019
WASHINGTON — As former Vice President Joe Biden's camp scrambles to contain any political damage over his past behavior with women, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has some words of advice: Keep your distance.
"Join the straight-arm club," Pelosi told a breakfast hour Washington event on Tuesday.
In other words, keep your handshakes at arms' length and don't be touchy-feely.
"Just pretend you have a cold and I have a cold," Pelosi said.
Pelosi, D-Calif., told the event, which was sponsored by Politico, that Biden "has to understand that in the world we are in now people's space is important to them and what's important is how they receive it, not necessarily how you intended it."
Her remarks came as Biden's aides are striking a more aggressive tone as he considers running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination and faces scrutiny over his past behavior toward women.
In a statement on Monday, Biden spokesman Bill Russo blasted "right wing trolls" from "the dark recesses of the internet" for conflating images of Biden embracing acquaintances, colleagues and friends in his official capacity during swearing-in ceremonies with uninvited touching.
Two women have said Biden touched them inappropriately in the past.
Amy Lappos, a former aide to Democratic Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, said Monday that Biden touched her face with both hands and rubbed noses in 2009.
Former Nevada politician Lucy Flores penned a magazine essay last week in which she wrote that Biden kissed her on the back of the head in 2014.
The developments underscored the challenge facing Biden should he decide to seek the White House.
Following historic wins in the 2018 midterms, Democratic politics is dominated by energy from women.
The allegations could leave the 76-year-old Biden, long known for his affectionate mannerisms, appearing out of touch with the party as the Democratic presidential primary begins.
Lappos told The Associated Press that she and other Himes aides were helping out at a fundraiser in a private home in Hartford, Connecticut, in October 2009 when Biden entered the kitchen to thank the group for pitching in.
"After he finished speaking, he stopped to talk to us about how important a congressional staff is, which I thought was awesome," Lappos said.
She said she was stunned as Biden moved toward her.
"He wrapped both his hands around my face and pulled me in," said Lappos, who is now 43.
"I thought, 'Oh, God, he's going to kiss me.'"
"Instead, he rubbed noses with me."
Biden said nothing, she said, then moved off.
She said the experience left her feeling "weird and uncomfortable" and was "absolutely disrespectful of my personal boundaries."
The Hartford Courant first reported Lappos' assertion.
Russo, Biden's spokesman, didn't directly respond to Lappos, instead referring to a Sunday statement in which Biden said he doesn't believe he has acted inappropriately during his long public life.
The former vice president said in that statement: "We have arrived at an important time when women feel they can and should relate their experiences, and men should pay attention."
"And I will."
Biden hasn't made a final decision on whether to run for the White House.
But aides who weren't authorized to discuss internal conversations and spoke on the condition of anonymity said there were no signs that his team was slowing its preparations for a campaign.
Asked on Monday by the AP about the accusations against Biden, Pelosi said, "I don't think that this disqualifies him from running for president, not at all."
Biden's potential Democratic rivals haven't rushed to back him up.
Over the weekend, presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand came closest to calling out the former vice president.
Warren, a Massachusetts senator, said Biden "needs to give an answer" about what occurred.
Gillibrand, a New York senator, said, "If Vice President Biden becomes a candidate, this is a topic he'll have to engage on further."
Ultraviolet, a women's advocacy group, tweeted: "Joe Biden cannot paint himself as a champion of women and then refuse to listen and learn from a woman who says his actions demeaned her."
"Good intentions don't matter if the actions are inappropriate."
"Do better, Joe."
"And thank you @LucyFlores for coming forward."
Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa. AP Washington Bureau Chief Julie Pace contributed to this report.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... id=HPDHP17
Re: AMERICA'S FIGHTING BULLDOG JOE BIDEN
THE HILL
"Harris: 'I believe' Biden accusers"
Michael Burke
3 APRIL 2019
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) (D-Calif.) said Tuesday that she believes women who say they felt uncomfortable after receiving unwanted touching from former Vice President Joe Biden.
"I believe them and I respect them being able to tell their story and having the courage to do it," Harris said at a presidential campaign event in Nevada.
The California senator added that Biden will need to decide for himself whether to run for president.
"He's going to have to make that decision for himself."
"I wouldn't tell him what to do," Harris said.
In recent days, several women have come forward to allege that Biden has touched them inappropriately.
Former Nevada state lawmaker Lucy Flores, a Democrat, made the first accusation last week in an essay in New York Magazine's The Cut.
On Monday, Amy Lappos told the Hartford Courant that Biden also touched her inappropriately at a 2009 fundraiser in Connecticut.
Two additional women, Caitlyn Caruso and D. J. Hill, came forward Tuesday, sharing their experiences with The New York Times.
Biden, who is considering running for president and has led a number of polls of Democrats, has not commented publicly on the accusations since Sunday, when in response to Flores's allegation he said in a statement that he has "offered countless handshakes, hugs, expressions of affection, support and comfort."
"And not once — never — did I believe I acted inappropriately," Biden added.
"If it is suggested I did so, I will listen respectfully."
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... P17#page=2
"Harris: 'I believe' Biden accusers"
Michael Burke
3 APRIL 2019
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) (D-Calif.) said Tuesday that she believes women who say they felt uncomfortable after receiving unwanted touching from former Vice President Joe Biden.
"I believe them and I respect them being able to tell their story and having the courage to do it," Harris said at a presidential campaign event in Nevada.
The California senator added that Biden will need to decide for himself whether to run for president.
"He's going to have to make that decision for himself."
"I wouldn't tell him what to do," Harris said.
In recent days, several women have come forward to allege that Biden has touched them inappropriately.
Former Nevada state lawmaker Lucy Flores, a Democrat, made the first accusation last week in an essay in New York Magazine's The Cut.
On Monday, Amy Lappos told the Hartford Courant that Biden also touched her inappropriately at a 2009 fundraiser in Connecticut.
Two additional women, Caitlyn Caruso and D. J. Hill, came forward Tuesday, sharing their experiences with The New York Times.
Biden, who is considering running for president and has led a number of polls of Democrats, has not commented publicly on the accusations since Sunday, when in response to Flores's allegation he said in a statement that he has "offered countless handshakes, hugs, expressions of affection, support and comfort."
"And not once — never — did I believe I acted inappropriately," Biden added.
"If it is suggested I did so, I will listen respectfully."
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... P17#page=2
Re: AMERICA'S FIGHTING BULLDOG JOE BIDEN
SLATE
"Why Stories of Biden’s Creepy Touching Won’t Bother His Supporters"
Josh Voorhees
3 APRIL 2019
Joe Biden is not yet an official candidate for president, but he is already on the defensive.
Two Democratic women, Lucy Flores and Amy Lappos, came forward in the past week with accounts of how the former vice president made them feel uncomfortable by touching them and invading their personal space.
Neither woman claimed Biden’s actions were criminal or sexual, but their accounts took a yearslong concern about the ex-veep from the hypothetical to the concrete.
The question is no longer whether Biden has made women feel uncomfortable in the past; it is how voters will react now that they know that he has.
I don’t think these two stories by themselves should disqualify Biden from running for president — and, to be clear, I haven’t seen any Democratic powerbroker actually suggest a political death sentence for Biden.
But I do believe that his behavior in the past and his justification of it in the present neatly illustrates the larger case against his bid to become his party’s nominee.
As my former colleague Michelle Goldberg put in in the New York Times: Biden “is a product of his time, but that time is up.”
Still, I doubt Biden’s fans are going to desert him over these types of offenses.
For starters, Biden’s penchant for physical contact, particularly with women, was no secret.
As Katherine Miller put in Buzzfeed, “Everybody already knows what they think about Joe Biden putting his hands on people, because we’ve all seen this happen in public.”
And yet despite all the photos of Biden getting uncomfortably close to others, no one in the potential Democratic 2020 field has a higher approval rating than Uncle Joe, even when you account for his national profile.
More tellingly, many Democrats who don’t name Biden as their first choice appear just fine with the idea of him as the eventual nominee.
In a NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll last month, a combined 73 percent of Democrats said they’re either enthusiastic (33 percent) or comfortable (40 percent) with Biden as a candidate, while just 25 percent said they either had some reservations (19 percent) or were very uncomfortable (6 percent) with him.
Biden has a history of doing and saying cringe-worthy things but, for whatever reason, most Democratic voters aren’t yet cringing.
Flores’ and Lappos’ stories and the clamor they’ve ignited are unlikely to change that.
Biden has already faced serious questions about a host of his past positions that look downright conservative by today’s standards, including his mishandling of the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas hearings, something he’s expressed regret over but has nonetheless not actually apologized directly for to Hill.
And yet he’s been the polling leader for the 2020 nomination pretty much since Hillary Clinton lost in 2016.
While some voters will now rethink things, it’s hard to imagine that those most likely to sour on him were on the Biden train to begin with.
Biden’s base is old — much older than the other septuagenarian in the race, as CNN data analyst Henry Enten documented:
The available polling suggests that older voters are less receptive than younger ones to taking these kinds of charges seriously.
Older voters are more likely to express doubts about the #MeToo movement and whether the past actions of men should be disqualifying in the present.
A Pew Research Center poll from last spring suggests that the older people are, the more likely they are to believe that the increased attention on sexual harassment has made navigating workplace interactions more difficult for men.
A Buzzfeed/Ipsos poll from this past fall found a stark age gap when it comes to believing victims of sexual harassment or sexual assault: 65 percent of adults under 35 said they should be believed no matter what, compared to just 38 percent of people older than 54 who said the same thing.
An NPR/Ipsos poll from last fall found that roughly half of voters 35 or older said they were still unclear on what crosses the line in terms of sexual misconduct.
And a Vox/Morning Consult survey from last month found that women 35 or older were about half as likely as women under 35 to say it’s “acceptable” for some men to lose their jobs over allegations of sexual misconduct.
If older voters have doubts about sexual misconduct, it stands to reason they’ll be even more skeptical of the gray area Biden finds himself in now.
And then there’s the backlash to consider, whereby some voters actually rally to Biden’s defense.
Consider, for instance, the response from Theda Skocpol, a 71-year-old Harvard political scientist, who made it clear she has no interest in a circular firing squad with Donald Trump in the White House.
“Is this the kind of society we want to live in — where right-wingers can do any vicious thing they want to anyone and shrug it off, while people on the center-left are supposed to expel from public life anyone who says a single wrong word or has done something benignly intended in the past that now does not fit changed norms?” she wrote in a letter to the Times.
“Not me, that is not the kind of America I want to live in."
"That is not the kind of Democratic primary I want to participate in.”
None of this is to say that Biden will emerge from this storm unscathed.
At the very least, it’s put him on the defensive at a time when he’d prefer to be building momentum ahead of his planned launch.
But as much as I hope Flores’ and Lappos’ stories motivate voters to more fully reckon with what Biden’s worldview would mean for his candidacy and potential presidency, I’ve yet to find reason to believe that will happen.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/w ... P17#page=2
"Why Stories of Biden’s Creepy Touching Won’t Bother His Supporters"
Josh Voorhees
3 APRIL 2019
Joe Biden is not yet an official candidate for president, but he is already on the defensive.
Two Democratic women, Lucy Flores and Amy Lappos, came forward in the past week with accounts of how the former vice president made them feel uncomfortable by touching them and invading their personal space.
Neither woman claimed Biden’s actions were criminal or sexual, but their accounts took a yearslong concern about the ex-veep from the hypothetical to the concrete.
The question is no longer whether Biden has made women feel uncomfortable in the past; it is how voters will react now that they know that he has.
I don’t think these two stories by themselves should disqualify Biden from running for president — and, to be clear, I haven’t seen any Democratic powerbroker actually suggest a political death sentence for Biden.
But I do believe that his behavior in the past and his justification of it in the present neatly illustrates the larger case against his bid to become his party’s nominee.
As my former colleague Michelle Goldberg put in in the New York Times: Biden “is a product of his time, but that time is up.”
Still, I doubt Biden’s fans are going to desert him over these types of offenses.
For starters, Biden’s penchant for physical contact, particularly with women, was no secret.
As Katherine Miller put in Buzzfeed, “Everybody already knows what they think about Joe Biden putting his hands on people, because we’ve all seen this happen in public.”
And yet despite all the photos of Biden getting uncomfortably close to others, no one in the potential Democratic 2020 field has a higher approval rating than Uncle Joe, even when you account for his national profile.
More tellingly, many Democrats who don’t name Biden as their first choice appear just fine with the idea of him as the eventual nominee.
In a NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll last month, a combined 73 percent of Democrats said they’re either enthusiastic (33 percent) or comfortable (40 percent) with Biden as a candidate, while just 25 percent said they either had some reservations (19 percent) or were very uncomfortable (6 percent) with him.
Biden has a history of doing and saying cringe-worthy things but, for whatever reason, most Democratic voters aren’t yet cringing.
Flores’ and Lappos’ stories and the clamor they’ve ignited are unlikely to change that.
Biden has already faced serious questions about a host of his past positions that look downright conservative by today’s standards, including his mishandling of the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas hearings, something he’s expressed regret over but has nonetheless not actually apologized directly for to Hill.
And yet he’s been the polling leader for the 2020 nomination pretty much since Hillary Clinton lost in 2016.
While some voters will now rethink things, it’s hard to imagine that those most likely to sour on him were on the Biden train to begin with.
Biden’s base is old — much older than the other septuagenarian in the race, as CNN data analyst Henry Enten documented:
The available polling suggests that older voters are less receptive than younger ones to taking these kinds of charges seriously.
Older voters are more likely to express doubts about the #MeToo movement and whether the past actions of men should be disqualifying in the present.
A Pew Research Center poll from last spring suggests that the older people are, the more likely they are to believe that the increased attention on sexual harassment has made navigating workplace interactions more difficult for men.
A Buzzfeed/Ipsos poll from this past fall found a stark age gap when it comes to believing victims of sexual harassment or sexual assault: 65 percent of adults under 35 said they should be believed no matter what, compared to just 38 percent of people older than 54 who said the same thing.
An NPR/Ipsos poll from last fall found that roughly half of voters 35 or older said they were still unclear on what crosses the line in terms of sexual misconduct.
And a Vox/Morning Consult survey from last month found that women 35 or older were about half as likely as women under 35 to say it’s “acceptable” for some men to lose their jobs over allegations of sexual misconduct.
If older voters have doubts about sexual misconduct, it stands to reason they’ll be even more skeptical of the gray area Biden finds himself in now.
And then there’s the backlash to consider, whereby some voters actually rally to Biden’s defense.
Consider, for instance, the response from Theda Skocpol, a 71-year-old Harvard political scientist, who made it clear she has no interest in a circular firing squad with Donald Trump in the White House.
“Is this the kind of society we want to live in — where right-wingers can do any vicious thing they want to anyone and shrug it off, while people on the center-left are supposed to expel from public life anyone who says a single wrong word or has done something benignly intended in the past that now does not fit changed norms?” she wrote in a letter to the Times.
“Not me, that is not the kind of America I want to live in."
"That is not the kind of Democratic primary I want to participate in.”
None of this is to say that Biden will emerge from this storm unscathed.
At the very least, it’s put him on the defensive at a time when he’d prefer to be building momentum ahead of his planned launch.
But as much as I hope Flores’ and Lappos’ stories motivate voters to more fully reckon with what Biden’s worldview would mean for his candidacy and potential presidency, I’ve yet to find reason to believe that will happen.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/w ... P17#page=2
Re: AMERICA'S FIGHTING BULLDOG JOE BIDEN
THE WASHINGTON POST
"Three more women accuse Biden of unwanted affection, say video doesn’t quell concerns"
Elise Viebeck, Matt Viser, Colby Itkowitz
4 APRIL 2019
Former vice president Joe Biden promised on Wednesday to adjust his physical behavior toward women, an effort to quell controversy over whether his intimate style is appropriate in the era of the #MeToo movement.
Biden addressed critics in a video posted to Twitter as three additional women told The Washington Post on Wednesday about encounters with him that made them feel uncomfortable.
Their stories bring the total number of people who have expressed concerns about alleged interactions with Biden to seven.
Other women defended Biden, who has been seen by many women as an advocate for them.
The new accounts, emerging just weeks before Biden, 76, is expected to announce his decision about a White House bid, reflected a feeling among some women that Biden was struggling to understand why his behavior might at times be inappropriate or unwelcome.
In a party energized by millennials, women and people of color, Biden has faced criticism over a host of positions and decisions from his nearly five decades in public life, including his handling of Anita Hill’s testimony during Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s confirmation hearing.
Even on Wednesday, as Biden acknowledged shifting social norms and promised to be “more respectful of people’s personal space,” he defended his style of interacting and did not offer an apology.
“I’ll be much more mindful."
"That is my responsibility, my responsibility, and I’ll meet it."
"But I’ll always believe governing, quite frankly, and life, for that matter, is about connecting, about connecting with people."
"That won’t change,” Biden said in the video.
Three women told The Post that Biden’s behavior toward them made them feel uncomfortable and said Biden’s comments Wednesday didn’t fully address their concerns.
Vail Kohnert-Yount said she was a White House intern in the spring of 2013 and one day tried to exit the basement of the West Wing when she was asked to step aside so Biden could enter.
After she moved out of the way, she said, Biden approached her to introduce himself and shake her hand.
“He then put his hand on the back of my head and pressed his forehead to my forehead while he talked to me."
"I was so shocked that it was hard to focus on what he was saying."
"I remember he told me I was a 'pretty girl,'" Kohnert-Yount said in a statement to The Post.
She described feeling uncomfortable and embarrassed that Biden had commented on her appearance in a professional setting, “even though it was intended as a compliment.”
“I do not consider my experience to have been sexual assault or harassment,” she stated, adding that she believes Biden’s intentions were good.
“But it was the kind of inappropriate behavior that makes many women feel uncomfortable and unequal in the workplace.”
In response to Biden’s video, Kohnert-Yount emailed: “I appreciate his attempt to do better in the future, but to me this is not mainly about whether Joe Biden has adequate respect for personal space."
"It’s about women deserving equal respect in the workplace.”
The allegations have dominated coverage of Biden since last week.
President Trump, who has denied multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, on Wednesday said Biden should not apologize for his behavior, even as a pro-Trump super PAC circulated an online ad casting Biden’s interactions with women and girls in a negative light.
Biden’s video comes as he and his advisers have been laying the groundwork for a presidential campaign.
He has been expected to make an announcement by late April, and in recent days his advisers have been calling allies to assure them that the latest controversy would not knock him out of a run.
Advisers said that they viewed Biden’s video as a strong and forceful response and that it has not derailed his decision.
The reexamination of Biden’s behavior toward women began last week after a former Nevada legislator, Lucy Flores, wrote that she felt uncomfortable after Biden allegedly held her shoulders, smelled her hair and kissed her head in 2014.
In the wake of the allegations, multiple women came forward to defend Biden, including former staffers, MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski and actress and #MeToo advocate Alyssa Milano.
Several noted Biden’s record on issues concerning women; as a senator from Delaware, he led efforts to pass the Violence Against Women Act, and as vice president, he was the Obama administration’s point person on efforts to end sexual assaults against women on college campuses.
The Democratic mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms, on Wednesday evening tweeted a photo of she and Biden standing forehead to forehead.
“Everyone’s experience is their own."
"As for mine, I found my introduction and interaction with @JoeBiden to be genuine and endearing,” she wrote.
Six other women have shared stories similar to Flores’s.
D.J. Hill and Caitlyn Caruso told the New York Times on Tuesday that Biden had made them feel uncomfortable during encounters with him.
Hill, 59, a writer who said she became uncomfortable when Biden placed his hand on her shoulder and then began dropping it down her back at a 2012 fundraising event in Minneapolis, appeared Wednesday on “Fox News @ Night.”
She told host Shannon Bream that she hoped this was a moment of “realization and self-awareness” for the former vice president.
“It’s one thing to say it,” she said, referring to Biden’s statement Wednesday on Twitter.
“It’s another thing to show actions that you’re moving toward what you say this self-realization is about.”
Calling for a zero-tolerance policy on invading personal space, she also defended herself and other women who have come forward to detail unpleasant experiences with Biden.
“Anyone that calls into question these women’s behavior doesn’t understand that there is no upside for them,” she said, noting that she hadn’t slept in 24 hours.
“We do it because we’re patriots and we believe in our country, but we also want to see a cultural change.”
A spokesman for Biden declined to comment on any specific allegations and referred The Post to the video posted to Twitter earlier in the day.
The most recent encounter described to The Post took place in 2016.
Sofie Karasek was part of a group of 51 sexual assault victims who appeared onstage at the Oscars with Lady Gaga that year; Biden had introduced the singer’s performance.
Karasek said as she met Biden after the ceremony, she was thinking about a college student who had been sexually assaulted and recently died by suicide.
She decided to share the story with the then-vice president, and Biden responded by clasping her hands and leaning down to place his forehead against hers, a moment captured in a widely circulated photograph.
Karasek said she appreciated Biden’s support but also felt awkward and uncomfortable that his gesture had left their faces suddenly inches apart.
She said she did not know how to respond to, as she described it, Biden crossing the boundary into her personal space at a sensitive moment.
Someone printed her the photo of that moment, which Karasek framed and put on a shelf, but later took it down as the #MeToo movement began drawing more attention to cases of sexual harassment, assault and unwanted touching.
She said Biden, in the video, “still didn’t take ownership in the way that he needs to.”
“He emphasized that he wants to connect with people and, of course, that’s important."
"But again, all of our interactions and friendships are a two-way street."
"... Too often it doesn’t matter how the woman feels about it or they just assume that they’re fine with it,” she said.
The third woman to speak with The Post recalled meeting Biden for the first time during the 2008 election cycle.
Ally Coll said she was a young Democratic staffer helping run a reception of about 50 people when Biden entered the room.
She said she was then introduced to Biden, who she said leaned in, squeezed her shoulders and delivered a compliment about her smile, holding her “for a beat too long.”
Coll, who runs the Purple Campaign, a nonprofit group that fights sexual harassment, said she felt nervous and excited about meeting Biden at the time and shrugged off feelings of discomfort.
She says now that she felt his alleged behavior was out of place and inappropriate in the context of a work situation.
“There’s been a lack of understanding about the way that power can turn something that might seem innocuous into something that can make somebody feel uncomfortable,” said Coll, who consults with companies about their workplace policies.
Coll said Biden’s video demonstrated “a continued lack of understanding about why these stories are being told and their relevance in the #MeToo era.”
People who have observed or interacted with Biden said pulling people toward him to touch foreheads is a common gesture he employs with men and women.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the country’s highest ranking Democrat and female political leader, said this week that the allegations against Biden are not disqualifying but that he should learn to avoid such intimate physical behavior in political settings.
“I think that it’s important for the vice president and others to understand that it isn’t what you intended; it’s how it was received,” Pelosi said at Tuesday morning at an event in Washington.
The speaker also challenged Biden’s response to the controversy on Sunday, when he stated that he never intended to act inappropriately but “if it is suggested I did so, I will listen respectfully.”
“To say, ‘I’m sorry that you were offended’ is not an apology,” Pelosi said.
“That’s not accepting the fact that people think differently about communication, whether it’s a handshake, a hug."
". . . He has to understand in the world that we’re in now that people’s space is important to them, and what’s important is how they receive it, not necessarily how you intended it.”
Felicia Sonmez and Isaac Stanley-Becker contributed to this report.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... P17#page=2
"Three more women accuse Biden of unwanted affection, say video doesn’t quell concerns"
Elise Viebeck, Matt Viser, Colby Itkowitz
4 APRIL 2019
Former vice president Joe Biden promised on Wednesday to adjust his physical behavior toward women, an effort to quell controversy over whether his intimate style is appropriate in the era of the #MeToo movement.
Biden addressed critics in a video posted to Twitter as three additional women told The Washington Post on Wednesday about encounters with him that made them feel uncomfortable.
Their stories bring the total number of people who have expressed concerns about alleged interactions with Biden to seven.
Other women defended Biden, who has been seen by many women as an advocate for them.
The new accounts, emerging just weeks before Biden, 76, is expected to announce his decision about a White House bid, reflected a feeling among some women that Biden was struggling to understand why his behavior might at times be inappropriate or unwelcome.
In a party energized by millennials, women and people of color, Biden has faced criticism over a host of positions and decisions from his nearly five decades in public life, including his handling of Anita Hill’s testimony during Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s confirmation hearing.
Even on Wednesday, as Biden acknowledged shifting social norms and promised to be “more respectful of people’s personal space,” he defended his style of interacting and did not offer an apology.
“I’ll be much more mindful."
"That is my responsibility, my responsibility, and I’ll meet it."
"But I’ll always believe governing, quite frankly, and life, for that matter, is about connecting, about connecting with people."
"That won’t change,” Biden said in the video.
Three women told The Post that Biden’s behavior toward them made them feel uncomfortable and said Biden’s comments Wednesday didn’t fully address their concerns.
Vail Kohnert-Yount said she was a White House intern in the spring of 2013 and one day tried to exit the basement of the West Wing when she was asked to step aside so Biden could enter.
After she moved out of the way, she said, Biden approached her to introduce himself and shake her hand.
“He then put his hand on the back of my head and pressed his forehead to my forehead while he talked to me."
"I was so shocked that it was hard to focus on what he was saying."
"I remember he told me I was a 'pretty girl,'" Kohnert-Yount said in a statement to The Post.
She described feeling uncomfortable and embarrassed that Biden had commented on her appearance in a professional setting, “even though it was intended as a compliment.”
“I do not consider my experience to have been sexual assault or harassment,” she stated, adding that she believes Biden’s intentions were good.
“But it was the kind of inappropriate behavior that makes many women feel uncomfortable and unequal in the workplace.”
In response to Biden’s video, Kohnert-Yount emailed: “I appreciate his attempt to do better in the future, but to me this is not mainly about whether Joe Biden has adequate respect for personal space."
"It’s about women deserving equal respect in the workplace.”
The allegations have dominated coverage of Biden since last week.
President Trump, who has denied multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, on Wednesday said Biden should not apologize for his behavior, even as a pro-Trump super PAC circulated an online ad casting Biden’s interactions with women and girls in a negative light.
Biden’s video comes as he and his advisers have been laying the groundwork for a presidential campaign.
He has been expected to make an announcement by late April, and in recent days his advisers have been calling allies to assure them that the latest controversy would not knock him out of a run.
Advisers said that they viewed Biden’s video as a strong and forceful response and that it has not derailed his decision.
The reexamination of Biden’s behavior toward women began last week after a former Nevada legislator, Lucy Flores, wrote that she felt uncomfortable after Biden allegedly held her shoulders, smelled her hair and kissed her head in 2014.
In the wake of the allegations, multiple women came forward to defend Biden, including former staffers, MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski and actress and #MeToo advocate Alyssa Milano.
Several noted Biden’s record on issues concerning women; as a senator from Delaware, he led efforts to pass the Violence Against Women Act, and as vice president, he was the Obama administration’s point person on efforts to end sexual assaults against women on college campuses.
The Democratic mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms, on Wednesday evening tweeted a photo of she and Biden standing forehead to forehead.
“Everyone’s experience is their own."
"As for mine, I found my introduction and interaction with @JoeBiden to be genuine and endearing,” she wrote.
Six other women have shared stories similar to Flores’s.
D.J. Hill and Caitlyn Caruso told the New York Times on Tuesday that Biden had made them feel uncomfortable during encounters with him.
Hill, 59, a writer who said she became uncomfortable when Biden placed his hand on her shoulder and then began dropping it down her back at a 2012 fundraising event in Minneapolis, appeared Wednesday on “Fox News @ Night.”
She told host Shannon Bream that she hoped this was a moment of “realization and self-awareness” for the former vice president.
“It’s one thing to say it,” she said, referring to Biden’s statement Wednesday on Twitter.
“It’s another thing to show actions that you’re moving toward what you say this self-realization is about.”
Calling for a zero-tolerance policy on invading personal space, she also defended herself and other women who have come forward to detail unpleasant experiences with Biden.
“Anyone that calls into question these women’s behavior doesn’t understand that there is no upside for them,” she said, noting that she hadn’t slept in 24 hours.
“We do it because we’re patriots and we believe in our country, but we also want to see a cultural change.”
A spokesman for Biden declined to comment on any specific allegations and referred The Post to the video posted to Twitter earlier in the day.
The most recent encounter described to The Post took place in 2016.
Sofie Karasek was part of a group of 51 sexual assault victims who appeared onstage at the Oscars with Lady Gaga that year; Biden had introduced the singer’s performance.
Karasek said as she met Biden after the ceremony, she was thinking about a college student who had been sexually assaulted and recently died by suicide.
She decided to share the story with the then-vice president, and Biden responded by clasping her hands and leaning down to place his forehead against hers, a moment captured in a widely circulated photograph.
Karasek said she appreciated Biden’s support but also felt awkward and uncomfortable that his gesture had left their faces suddenly inches apart.
She said she did not know how to respond to, as she described it, Biden crossing the boundary into her personal space at a sensitive moment.
Someone printed her the photo of that moment, which Karasek framed and put on a shelf, but later took it down as the #MeToo movement began drawing more attention to cases of sexual harassment, assault and unwanted touching.
She said Biden, in the video, “still didn’t take ownership in the way that he needs to.”
“He emphasized that he wants to connect with people and, of course, that’s important."
"But again, all of our interactions and friendships are a two-way street."
"... Too often it doesn’t matter how the woman feels about it or they just assume that they’re fine with it,” she said.
The third woman to speak with The Post recalled meeting Biden for the first time during the 2008 election cycle.
Ally Coll said she was a young Democratic staffer helping run a reception of about 50 people when Biden entered the room.
She said she was then introduced to Biden, who she said leaned in, squeezed her shoulders and delivered a compliment about her smile, holding her “for a beat too long.”
Coll, who runs the Purple Campaign, a nonprofit group that fights sexual harassment, said she felt nervous and excited about meeting Biden at the time and shrugged off feelings of discomfort.
She says now that she felt his alleged behavior was out of place and inappropriate in the context of a work situation.
“There’s been a lack of understanding about the way that power can turn something that might seem innocuous into something that can make somebody feel uncomfortable,” said Coll, who consults with companies about their workplace policies.
Coll said Biden’s video demonstrated “a continued lack of understanding about why these stories are being told and their relevance in the #MeToo era.”
People who have observed or interacted with Biden said pulling people toward him to touch foreheads is a common gesture he employs with men and women.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the country’s highest ranking Democrat and female political leader, said this week that the allegations against Biden are not disqualifying but that he should learn to avoid such intimate physical behavior in political settings.
“I think that it’s important for the vice president and others to understand that it isn’t what you intended; it’s how it was received,” Pelosi said at Tuesday morning at an event in Washington.
The speaker also challenged Biden’s response to the controversy on Sunday, when he stated that he never intended to act inappropriately but “if it is suggested I did so, I will listen respectfully.”
“To say, ‘I’m sorry that you were offended’ is not an apology,” Pelosi said.
“That’s not accepting the fact that people think differently about communication, whether it’s a handshake, a hug."
". . . He has to understand in the world that we’re in now that people’s space is important to them, and what’s important is how they receive it, not necessarily how you intended it.”
Felicia Sonmez and Isaac Stanley-Becker contributed to this report.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... P17#page=2
Re: AMERICA'S FIGHTING BULLDOG JOE BIDEN
THE NEW YORK TIMES
"Should a White Man Be the Face of the Democratic Party in 2020?"
ASTEAD W. HERNDON and MATT FLEGENHEIMER
20 APRIL 2019
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — As Peter Johnson and Emily Neal waited for Senator Kirsten Gillibrand to arrive at Barley’s, a brick-lined sports bar in southwestern Iowa, they gamed out possible nominees in the Democratic presidential primary.
Mr. Johnson, a 27-year-old law student, said the large field was a great equalizer, and “if at the end of it we get an old white guy, someone who represents the status quo, it’ll be because they’ve proven themselves.”
Ms. Neal, a dental hygienist, made an agonized face at Mr. Johnson, her boyfriend.
Wouldn’t something be lost, she asked, if the historically diverse slate of 2020 Democrats was passed over?
“Personally, I’d love to see a woman,” Ms. Neal, also 27, said at the event on Thursday night.
“If people are being catty and holding gender or race against a candidate, it would break my heart.”
As former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. prepares to enter the 2020 race this coming week, Democrats have seen the strong diversity in their field — with candidates like Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris reflecting the multiracial and largely female base of the party — become somewhat overshadowed by white male candidates.
Bernie Sanders has a wide fund-raising lead, he and Mr. Biden lead in polls, and Beto O’Rourke and Pete Buttigieg have enjoyed outsize attention from voters in early primary states, extensive media coverage and viral success with online donors.
Interviews with several dozen Democratic voters around the country show how the party, which enjoyed victories in 2018 that were powered by female and nonwhite candidates, is now grappling with two complicated questions about race, gender and politics in the Trump era.
Is a white man the best face for an increasingly diverse Democratic Party in 2020?
And what’s the bigger gamble: to nominate a white man and risk disappointing some of the party’s base, or nominate a minority candidate or a woman who might struggle to carry predominantly white swing states like Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania that both Barack Obama and President Trump won?
Pam Van Arsdale, 64, of Bedford, N.H., said she would like to see a minority or female candidate catch fire, and worries that nominating a white man could cause some liberals to skip voting in November 2020.
“I consider myself a centrist, middle-of-the-road Democrat."
"And the progressive side worries me."
"What are they going to do?"
"Are they going to sit it out if they don’t like the top candidate?” she said while attending a recent event for Cory Booker.
But Lee Kujawa, 72, of Wauwatosa, Wis., near Milwaukee, made a case for Mr. Biden, seeing him as “the most electable.”
“He can stand up to Trump,” said Mr. Kujawa, who said he believed the party would not pay a penalty by nominating its first white man since John Kerry in 2004.
Referring to Mr. Biden, he said, “He could pick Kamala Harris as a running mate; she’s one of my top three favorites.”
White men have largely ruled both the Democratic and Republican parties throughout American history, even as they have declined to roughly 30 percent of the population, and many voters still have preconceptions of presidents as white and male.
Mr. Biden and Mr. Sanders are starting off with other advantages as well: They are the best-known candidates at this stage, both with experience running for president, and they are well positioned to have the money and resources to compete through the 2020 primaries.
But as older white men, they are out of step with ascendant forces in the party today.
Women, minorities and young people are fueling much of its energy, and they are well represented by multiple well-qualified, politically savvy female and nonwhite Democrats who are running.
Ms. Harris in particular has had a strong start in fund-raising, and only Mr. Biden and Mr. Sanders consistently outpace her in polls.
The party also has a new primary calendar for 2020 that could help these candidates: The diverse Democratic electorates in California and Texas will vote earlier than usual, and candidates like Ms. Harris and Mr. Booker could also benefit from the sizable black vote in the early primary state of South Carolina.
Many of the voters interviewed said that the most important qualification was the ability to defeat Mr. Trump, who has come away from the recent release of the Mueller report more angry than elated and wants a political victory untainted by questions of legitimacy.
To some, the best Democratic candidate will be one who can wrest voters who backed Mr. Trump in battleground states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, as Democrats did somewhat successfully in 2018 to flip the House.
Jason Pinkowski, 35, who lives in the Milwaukee suburbs, crossed off several Democrats — Mr. Biden and Mr. Sanders because they are too old, and Mr. O’Rourke because he is too young — to arrive at Mr. Booker and Ms. Harris as his current favorites.
“Long story short, if a Democrat decides to put time in the Midwest, I think he or she will have a good chance,” he said.
The presumption that Democrats will turn out in force to beat Mr. Trump, no matter who the nominee is, has hurt the party before.
Hillary Clinton, her campaign strategy, the news media and the F.B.I. have all been blamed for her loss.
For whatever reason, she lost votes in Michigan and Wisconsin in 2016 compared to Mr. Obama in 2012, including a notable falloff among black voters.
Mr. Trump, in turn, energized the Republican base, which appears to remain loyal to him for the most part, and also won over some Midwest voters who once backed Mr. Obama.
David Pepper, chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, said the key to threading the electoral needle in 2020 was a diverse presidential ticket able to stop the hemorrhaging of white rural voters and to excite minority voters.
He pointed to Senator Sherrod Brown’s success in Ohio in appealing to both electorates in his 2018 re-election in a state that otherwise voted for Republicans in statewide campaigns.
“If between the ticket you have someone who’s got that economic populist brand of a Sherrod Brown, but also the diversity that will energize Cuyahoga County so that you have a margin of 200,000-plus versus 150,000, I think you win Ohio and all the rest of those Midwest states,” Mr. Pepper said.
He was referring to the Democrat-rich county dominated by the predominantly black city of Cleveland.
(To be sure, Mr. Trump won Ohio by eight percentage points in 2016.)
Others see the focus on electability as too limited — and even as an underhanded way to discount black and female candidates.
For this group, which includes voters and several political observers who focus on race and gender, there is a particular annoyance around code words they feel unduly penalize candidates.
Questions about which contender is “electable” and who can “bring the country together” distract from areas where female and minority candidates may lead the pack, including policy proposals and who best energizes typical nonvoters.
Compounding these frustrations have been Ms. Warren’s campaign fund-raising struggles and the early buzz around candidates like Mr. O’Rourke, who himself has acknowledged that he benefits from white male privilege.
“Bringing the country together won’t happen right now, so just vote for the best progressive policy,” said Kyrsten Matthews, 29, who attended Ms. Warren’s Birmingham, Ala., rally.
“I know that’s what I’m going to do.”
For some voters interviewed during Ms. Warren’s tour throughout the South, which included stops in heavily black communities in Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi, there was interest in candidates such as Mr. O’Rourke, Mr. Sanders or Mr. Biden because of factors unrelated to identity.
In Selma, Ala., Roderick West, 62, said he was looking to support Mr. Biden because of his experience as vice president.
Supporters of Mr. Sanders say his calls for wide-scale change in the country’s economic order make him a transformational candidate, regardless of skin color.
And some admirers of Mr. Buttigieg say that, as a gay man, he brings diversity to the field and would be a history-making nominee.
In conversations across eastern Iowa, Democratic voters acknowledged a feeling of whiplash after a midterm campaign defined largely by the success of women and people of color.
Many of those interviewed seemed almost resigned to having a white male nominee, reserving their angst for what they view as a greater priority than diversity atop the Democratic ticket: defeating Mr. Trump.
“It’s important to appeal to Republicans."
"I don’t know if a minority candidate can do that,” Catherine Rohret, who will turn 18 in June, said moments after watching Mr. O’Rourke campaign in Waterloo, Iowa.
“It hurts me to say because I’m a black woman."
"I would love to see a woman candidate.”
Rachel Cox, 35, from Iowa City, seemed exultant despite frigid temperatures moments after meeting Mr. O’Rourke at a St. Patrick’s Day 5K in North Liberty, Iowa.
A former Texan who waited until after the 2018 midterms to switch her registration to Iowa — so she could vote for Mr. O’Rourke — Ms. Cox said that a white male candidate might be better positioned to build a winning coalition.
“There could be two sides to that story,” she said when asked if nominating another white man could depress turnout in some corners of the party.
“Beto could bring a lot of moderate Republicans who are maybe a little bit averse to voting for women or voting for minorities.”
Ms. Cox had good reason to be concerned about the role of discrimination in voter choices.
In several instances during Ms. Warren’s Southern tour, men who attended an event with the Massachusetts senator dismissed supporting her candidacy using sexist terminology.
“Trump will run over a woman,” Carl West, 64, said as he walked to see Ms. Warren at the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala.
“He’ll just run a woman into the ground.”
Diane Henning, 70, a retired bookkeeper outside of Milwaukee, disagreed sharply.
She said it would be a mistake for Democrats to nominate a white man in 2020.
“There are so many good women out there who could do the job,” she said.
“I think women are a lot more open-minded, we certainly have been all of these years.”
For Hannah Reid, 22, who is a graduating senior at the University of Tampa and heard Mr. Buttigieg at an event recently, her decision making on a Democratic candidate will go beyond identity.
“I am a woman of color, but that’s not all that I am,” said Ms. Reid, who is black.
Referring to Mr. Buttigieg, she said: “He’s in the L.G.B.T. community, which is something we’ve never seen before."
"It’s got to be about more than just who you are; it’s got to be about what you think and what you say, what your ideas are.”
Astead W. Herndon reported from Alabama, Iowa and Mississippi, and Matt Flegenheimer from Iowa. Trip Gabriel contributed reporting from South Carolina and Wisconsin, and Nick Corasaniti from New Hampshire.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... P17#page=2
"Should a White Man Be the Face of the Democratic Party in 2020?"
ASTEAD W. HERNDON and MATT FLEGENHEIMER
20 APRIL 2019
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — As Peter Johnson and Emily Neal waited for Senator Kirsten Gillibrand to arrive at Barley’s, a brick-lined sports bar in southwestern Iowa, they gamed out possible nominees in the Democratic presidential primary.
Mr. Johnson, a 27-year-old law student, said the large field was a great equalizer, and “if at the end of it we get an old white guy, someone who represents the status quo, it’ll be because they’ve proven themselves.”
Ms. Neal, a dental hygienist, made an agonized face at Mr. Johnson, her boyfriend.
Wouldn’t something be lost, she asked, if the historically diverse slate of 2020 Democrats was passed over?
“Personally, I’d love to see a woman,” Ms. Neal, also 27, said at the event on Thursday night.
“If people are being catty and holding gender or race against a candidate, it would break my heart.”
As former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. prepares to enter the 2020 race this coming week, Democrats have seen the strong diversity in their field — with candidates like Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris reflecting the multiracial and largely female base of the party — become somewhat overshadowed by white male candidates.
Bernie Sanders has a wide fund-raising lead, he and Mr. Biden lead in polls, and Beto O’Rourke and Pete Buttigieg have enjoyed outsize attention from voters in early primary states, extensive media coverage and viral success with online donors.
Interviews with several dozen Democratic voters around the country show how the party, which enjoyed victories in 2018 that were powered by female and nonwhite candidates, is now grappling with two complicated questions about race, gender and politics in the Trump era.
Is a white man the best face for an increasingly diverse Democratic Party in 2020?
And what’s the bigger gamble: to nominate a white man and risk disappointing some of the party’s base, or nominate a minority candidate or a woman who might struggle to carry predominantly white swing states like Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania that both Barack Obama and President Trump won?
Pam Van Arsdale, 64, of Bedford, N.H., said she would like to see a minority or female candidate catch fire, and worries that nominating a white man could cause some liberals to skip voting in November 2020.
“I consider myself a centrist, middle-of-the-road Democrat."
"And the progressive side worries me."
"What are they going to do?"
"Are they going to sit it out if they don’t like the top candidate?” she said while attending a recent event for Cory Booker.
But Lee Kujawa, 72, of Wauwatosa, Wis., near Milwaukee, made a case for Mr. Biden, seeing him as “the most electable.”
“He can stand up to Trump,” said Mr. Kujawa, who said he believed the party would not pay a penalty by nominating its first white man since John Kerry in 2004.
Referring to Mr. Biden, he said, “He could pick Kamala Harris as a running mate; she’s one of my top three favorites.”
White men have largely ruled both the Democratic and Republican parties throughout American history, even as they have declined to roughly 30 percent of the population, and many voters still have preconceptions of presidents as white and male.
Mr. Biden and Mr. Sanders are starting off with other advantages as well: They are the best-known candidates at this stage, both with experience running for president, and they are well positioned to have the money and resources to compete through the 2020 primaries.
But as older white men, they are out of step with ascendant forces in the party today.
Women, minorities and young people are fueling much of its energy, and they are well represented by multiple well-qualified, politically savvy female and nonwhite Democrats who are running.
Ms. Harris in particular has had a strong start in fund-raising, and only Mr. Biden and Mr. Sanders consistently outpace her in polls.
The party also has a new primary calendar for 2020 that could help these candidates: The diverse Democratic electorates in California and Texas will vote earlier than usual, and candidates like Ms. Harris and Mr. Booker could also benefit from the sizable black vote in the early primary state of South Carolina.
Many of the voters interviewed said that the most important qualification was the ability to defeat Mr. Trump, who has come away from the recent release of the Mueller report more angry than elated and wants a political victory untainted by questions of legitimacy.
To some, the best Democratic candidate will be one who can wrest voters who backed Mr. Trump in battleground states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, as Democrats did somewhat successfully in 2018 to flip the House.
Jason Pinkowski, 35, who lives in the Milwaukee suburbs, crossed off several Democrats — Mr. Biden and Mr. Sanders because they are too old, and Mr. O’Rourke because he is too young — to arrive at Mr. Booker and Ms. Harris as his current favorites.
“Long story short, if a Democrat decides to put time in the Midwest, I think he or she will have a good chance,” he said.
The presumption that Democrats will turn out in force to beat Mr. Trump, no matter who the nominee is, has hurt the party before.
Hillary Clinton, her campaign strategy, the news media and the F.B.I. have all been blamed for her loss.
For whatever reason, she lost votes in Michigan and Wisconsin in 2016 compared to Mr. Obama in 2012, including a notable falloff among black voters.
Mr. Trump, in turn, energized the Republican base, which appears to remain loyal to him for the most part, and also won over some Midwest voters who once backed Mr. Obama.
David Pepper, chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, said the key to threading the electoral needle in 2020 was a diverse presidential ticket able to stop the hemorrhaging of white rural voters and to excite minority voters.
He pointed to Senator Sherrod Brown’s success in Ohio in appealing to both electorates in his 2018 re-election in a state that otherwise voted for Republicans in statewide campaigns.
“If between the ticket you have someone who’s got that economic populist brand of a Sherrod Brown, but also the diversity that will energize Cuyahoga County so that you have a margin of 200,000-plus versus 150,000, I think you win Ohio and all the rest of those Midwest states,” Mr. Pepper said.
He was referring to the Democrat-rich county dominated by the predominantly black city of Cleveland.
(To be sure, Mr. Trump won Ohio by eight percentage points in 2016.)
Others see the focus on electability as too limited — and even as an underhanded way to discount black and female candidates.
For this group, which includes voters and several political observers who focus on race and gender, there is a particular annoyance around code words they feel unduly penalize candidates.
Questions about which contender is “electable” and who can “bring the country together” distract from areas where female and minority candidates may lead the pack, including policy proposals and who best energizes typical nonvoters.
Compounding these frustrations have been Ms. Warren’s campaign fund-raising struggles and the early buzz around candidates like Mr. O’Rourke, who himself has acknowledged that he benefits from white male privilege.
“Bringing the country together won’t happen right now, so just vote for the best progressive policy,” said Kyrsten Matthews, 29, who attended Ms. Warren’s Birmingham, Ala., rally.
“I know that’s what I’m going to do.”
For some voters interviewed during Ms. Warren’s tour throughout the South, which included stops in heavily black communities in Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi, there was interest in candidates such as Mr. O’Rourke, Mr. Sanders or Mr. Biden because of factors unrelated to identity.
In Selma, Ala., Roderick West, 62, said he was looking to support Mr. Biden because of his experience as vice president.
Supporters of Mr. Sanders say his calls for wide-scale change in the country’s economic order make him a transformational candidate, regardless of skin color.
And some admirers of Mr. Buttigieg say that, as a gay man, he brings diversity to the field and would be a history-making nominee.
In conversations across eastern Iowa, Democratic voters acknowledged a feeling of whiplash after a midterm campaign defined largely by the success of women and people of color.
Many of those interviewed seemed almost resigned to having a white male nominee, reserving their angst for what they view as a greater priority than diversity atop the Democratic ticket: defeating Mr. Trump.
“It’s important to appeal to Republicans."
"I don’t know if a minority candidate can do that,” Catherine Rohret, who will turn 18 in June, said moments after watching Mr. O’Rourke campaign in Waterloo, Iowa.
“It hurts me to say because I’m a black woman."
"I would love to see a woman candidate.”
Rachel Cox, 35, from Iowa City, seemed exultant despite frigid temperatures moments after meeting Mr. O’Rourke at a St. Patrick’s Day 5K in North Liberty, Iowa.
A former Texan who waited until after the 2018 midterms to switch her registration to Iowa — so she could vote for Mr. O’Rourke — Ms. Cox said that a white male candidate might be better positioned to build a winning coalition.
“There could be two sides to that story,” she said when asked if nominating another white man could depress turnout in some corners of the party.
“Beto could bring a lot of moderate Republicans who are maybe a little bit averse to voting for women or voting for minorities.”
Ms. Cox had good reason to be concerned about the role of discrimination in voter choices.
In several instances during Ms. Warren’s Southern tour, men who attended an event with the Massachusetts senator dismissed supporting her candidacy using sexist terminology.
“Trump will run over a woman,” Carl West, 64, said as he walked to see Ms. Warren at the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala.
“He’ll just run a woman into the ground.”
Diane Henning, 70, a retired bookkeeper outside of Milwaukee, disagreed sharply.
She said it would be a mistake for Democrats to nominate a white man in 2020.
“There are so many good women out there who could do the job,” she said.
“I think women are a lot more open-minded, we certainly have been all of these years.”
For Hannah Reid, 22, who is a graduating senior at the University of Tampa and heard Mr. Buttigieg at an event recently, her decision making on a Democratic candidate will go beyond identity.
“I am a woman of color, but that’s not all that I am,” said Ms. Reid, who is black.
Referring to Mr. Buttigieg, she said: “He’s in the L.G.B.T. community, which is something we’ve never seen before."
"It’s got to be about more than just who you are; it’s got to be about what you think and what you say, what your ideas are.”
Astead W. Herndon reported from Alabama, Iowa and Mississippi, and Matt Flegenheimer from Iowa. Trip Gabriel contributed reporting from South Carolina and Wisconsin, and Nick Corasaniti from New Hampshire.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... P17#page=2
Re: AMERICA'S FIGHTING BULLDOG JOE BIDEN
Comin' to ya on a dusty road
Good lovin' he's got a truck load
And when you get it you got something
So don't worry cause Joe Biden's coming
He's the soul man
He's the soul man
He's the soul man
He's the soul man
Got what he got the hard way
And he'll make it better each and every day
So honey don't you fret
'Cause you ain't seen nothing yet
He's the soul man
He's the soul man
Play it Steve!
He's the soul man
He's the soul man
Listen
He was brought up on a side street
He learned how to love before he could eat
He was educated from good stock
When he starts lovin' he just can't stop
He's the soul man
He's the soul man
He's the soul man
He's the soul man
Well grab the rope and he'll pull you in
Give you hope and be your only boyfriend
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
He's the soul man
He's the soul man
You're a soul man
He's the soul man
He's the soul man
He's the soul man
JOE BIDEN IS "THE SOUL MAN!"Speech of Mr. Hayne, of South Carolina January 25, 1830
Sir, the party to which I am proud of having belonged from the very commencement of my political life to the present day, were the democrats of ’98.
Anarchists, anti-federalists, revolutionists, I think they were sometimes called.
HE'S GOING TO SAVE THE SOUL OF THE NATION …
AND THEN HE'S GOING TO TELL US WHO WROTE THE BOOK OF LOVE …
And so ...
THE WASHINGTON POST
"Former vice president Joe Biden jumps into White House race"
Michael Scherer, John Wagner
25 APRIL 2019
Former vice president Joe Biden opened his third campaign for the presidency on Thursday, taking direct aim at President Trump and declaring that “we are in the battle for the soul of this nation.”
In a video posted on social media, Biden recounted the deadly clash between white supremacists and counterprotesters at a 2017 gathering in Charlottesville, after which Trump said there were “some very fine people on both sides.”
“In that moment, I knew the threat to this nation was unlike any I had seen in our lifetime,” Biden said, adding: “The core values of this nation — our standing in the world, our very democracy, everything that has made America America — is at stake."
"That’s why today I’m announcing my candidacy for president of the United States.”
As he joined a crowded Democratic field in which many candidates have staked out progressive positions on an array of issues, Biden made no mention of policy specifics in the 3½ -minute video, which also stood out for how directly he confronted Trump.
Biden, 76, who served for eight years as the second-in-command to the last Democrat to successfully seek the presidency, holds a strong position in early polls, but the trajectory of his campaign is uncertain.
Biden made his announcement hours before a major campaign fundraiser was to take place in Philadelphia.
His first campaign event, union-themed, is planned Monday in Pittsburgh, a Democratic city whose suburbs and exurbs are filled with the sort of voters who abandoned the Democratic Party to side with Trump in 2016.
After that, his campaign said, Biden will travel to several early nominating states.
Biden, who made his first bid for the White House more than 30 years ago, is scheduled to appear Friday on “The View,” in what the ABC program said in a tweet would be his first television interview since announcing his candidacy.
Trump responded to Biden’s entrance about two hours after he announced.
“Welcome to the race Sleepy Joe,” he wrote on Twitter.
“I only hope you have the intelligence, long in doubt, to wage a successful primary campaign."
"It will be nasty - you will be dealing with people who truly have some very sick & demented ideas."
"But if you make it, I will see you at the Starting Gate!”
A Democratic force for nearly five decades, Biden built his career as a campaigner on his connection with working-class voters, including white voters he has sometimes called “the ethnic vote” — Midwestern Irish, Italian and Polish Catholics, or South Florida Jews.
His campaign style tends toward the populism of Franklin Roosevelt, railing against those with money and power who he claims work against the needs of middle-class Americans.
“They don’t understand us middle-class folks,” Biden thundered repeatedly from the stump in 2012, when he was campaigning against then-Republican nominee Mitt Romney.
After Trump’s election in 2016, Biden made clear that he believed the cause was a failure by Democrats to connect with working voters.
“You didn’t hear a single solitary sentence in the last campaign about that guy working on the assembly line making 60,000 bucks a year and a wife making $32,000 as a hostess in restaurant,” he said in a 2017 appearance at the University of Pennsylvania.
At the same time, Biden also is expected to play up — and benefit from — his tenure as vice president to the nation’s first black president.
In early polling, Biden has been popular among black voters, who make up a dominant Democratic voting bloc in many states.
Former president Barack Obama has indicated, however, that he will not make an early endorsement in the race.
In a statement shortly after the release of Biden’s video, an Obama spokeswoman praised Biden’s tenure as vice president but stopped short of offering the former president’s endorsement.
“President Obama has long said that selecting Joe Biden as his running mate in 2008 was one of the best decisions he ever made,” said Obama spokeswoman Katie Hill.
“He relied on the Vice President’s knowledge, insight and judgment throughout both campaigns and the entire presidency."
"The two forged a special bond over the last 10 years and remain close today.”
Speaking briefly to reporters Thursday at the Amtrak station in Wilmington, Del., Biden said he had asked Obama not to make an endorsement in the Democratic nominating contest.
“Whoever wins the nomination should win it on their own merits,” Biden said.
Asked why he’s the best choice for Democrats, Biden said, “That will be for the Democrats to decide.”
As he finalized his run, Biden was buffeted by scrutiny for a wide range of positions that, in some cases, were in line with Democratic orthodoxy long ago but are now out of step — a circumstance that may presage what awaits him in the campaign.
Those include support for antibusing legislation in the 1970s, his role handling the testimony of Anita Hill during Senate hearings to confirm Clarence Thomas as a Supreme Court justice, and his arm-twisting on behalf of a crime bill in the 1990s.
He has attempted to address some of those issues in recent weeks but has often stumbled.
“To this day, I regret I couldn’t come up with a way to get her the kind of hearing she deserved,” Biden said last month of the hearings on Thomas’s nomination, which he directed as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
He has also come under criticism in recent weeks for his hands-on style.
Several women have said he made he them feel uncomfortable with hugs, pressing his forehead against theirs, or, in one case, smelling a Nevada politician’s hair.
Biden posted a video saying that “social norms are changing” and that he would be “much more mindful.”
Two days later, however, he twice joked about the complaints during a speech to union workers.
Biden and his team worked to try to engineer a show of force at his entrance, both from organized groups loyal to him and from donors.
Shortly after his announcement, he received several endorsements, including from Sen. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.), who succeeded Biden after he left the Senate to become vice president.
In a statement, Coons said Biden was “better prepared than anyone to lead America on the world stage at a time when our commitments to our allies and our values are being questioned like never before.”
The Republican National Committee also quickly sought to define Biden in a far less flattering light, calling him a “gaffe machine” and noting that Obama was not offering his endorsement.
“Joe Biden has been running for president and losing since the ’80s,” said RNC spokesman Michael Ahrens.
“2020 won’t be any different."
"Biden’s fingerprints are all over foreign policy blunders and the weakest economic recovery since World War II."
"We don’t need eight more years of Biden.”
For months, a tight group of current and former advisers has been knitting together a campaign plan to prepare for a run, talking with him as he has vacillated on his desire to throw his hat in the ring.
They include Steve Ricchetti, a former lobbyist who served as his last chief of staff in the White House; former senator Ted Kaufman (D-Del.), a longtime friend whom he helped appoint to his vacant Senate seat after the 2008 election; and Mike Donilon, a longtime aide.
A broader network of friends and former aides has signaled hope for months that Biden would enter the race so they can join his campaign, an advantage his aides hope will allow him to quickly pull together a large organization.
An underwhelming fundraiser in his first two campaigns for president, he is likely to be aided this time by deep-pocketed donors he got to know during the Obama years.
“We need to get more pragmatic and understand that Joe Biden is the only real chance to win in 2020,” said Dick Harpootlian, former chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party.
“My concern is our nominee has to be able to carry Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan — and I don’t see that in any of these other folks.”
Biden considered a late entry into the 2016 Democratic nomination fight, as a challenger to former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, but decided against it as he mourned the death of his eldest son, Beau, from brain cancer at age 46.
He later wrote a book explaining his decision as a personal one based on his emotional turmoil after his son’s death.
Biden’s earlier presidential races were disappointments.
His first run, in 1988, was derailed by scandal when it was revealed that he had lifted parts of his stump speech from British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock, among others.
Two decades later, Biden cast himself in his second presidential run as the most experienced Democratic candidate in the field, especially on matters of national security.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I have forgotten more about how to fight terror than Rudy Giuliani will ever learn,” he said in one of his last rallies before the Iowa caucuses, referring to the mayor of New York at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“The test for this presidency is clear."
"It is crystal clear: Who can take these guys on, and who is ready from day one?”
Biden won less than 1 percent of the delegates in the 2008 Iowa caucuses, however, and dropped out of the race shortly afterward.
Seven months later, Obama selected him as his running mate, a credit both to Biden’s experience as an inside player in Washington and to his perceived appeal among Midwestern voters.
In the White House, he was a constant presence in decision meetings, weighing in with Obama on a broad range of issues.
He was also given special briefs, including the implementation of the 2009 stimulus bill, a failed effort to change gun laws after the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School and as a lead White House negotiator with congressional Republicans during budgetary standoffs.
Obama, who has remained a close friend and frequent booster of Biden, has spent the years since leaving the White House focused on developing “the next generation” of Democratic talent.
Advisers say that has not been intended as a signal for Biden not to run, though Biden has written that he believed Obama tried to indirectly discourage him from entering the 2016 election during their private conversations.
At one point, the vice president met with an Obama pollster who argued, Biden wrote, that “I had no real path to the nomination” in a contest against Clinton.
First elected to the U.S. Senate by Delaware voters in 1972, at the age of 29, Biden went on to six reelections, serving as the chairman of the Judiciary Committee during contentious confirmation battles over Supreme Court nominees Thomas and Robert H. Bork , and as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee at the time of the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Like Clinton, he voted as a senator in 2002 to authorize the use of force in Iraq, which cleared the way for a war launched by President George W. Bush.
Biden later said he regretted the vote.
During the 2012 campaign, Biden praised Obama for overlooking his objections to approving a secret raid that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 2001 attacks.
He later said he privately encouraged Obama to move forward with the raid in a separate conversation.
In recent months, he has been less aggressive than other presidential hopefuls in recruiting staffers, building an email list or reaching out for support in the early-voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
He did travel the country in the run-up to the 2018 midterms, campaigning for Democratic candidates with a message that is likely to pop up in his presidential campaign.
“We have to make clear that Democrats, Democrats choose hope over fear."
"Democrats choose unity over division, and most importantly, we choose truth over lies,” Biden said.
“It’s time to get up."
"Remember who in the hell we are."
"This is America.”
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