Joe Biden Bets the Country Will Accept His ‘Affectionate’ Behavior
Joe Biden’s whole presidential candidacy would be a bet that the country hasn’t changed too much for a 76-year-old man who’s been in politics for nearly half a century. But the crisis rocking him for the past few days is a test of how much the culture has shifted.
The former vice president was very close to getting into the race before Lucy Flores’s essay was published on Friday, and he’s just as close now, people who’ve talked to him say. He was not surprised that his touching would be used as a political issue against him, but he was surprised and dismayed to hear he had made Flores uncomfortable.
But Biden is telling people that as seriously as he is taking the situation, if he decides not to run, it won’t be because of Flores’s interpretation of a kiss on the back of her head or similar situations involving others who might step forward—which he doesn’t deny happened but which he says never had demeaning intent, sexual or otherwise. Beyond a written statement, though, he hasn’t spoken publicly, even as allies have been telling people that they believe what he’s facing is part of
