Former VP Joe Biden facing a crisis after unwelcoming sexual advance accusation and other unflattering photos

CNN

Lucy Flores, a woman who ran for lieutenant governor for Nevada, accused former Vice President Joe Biden of touching her inappropriately during a 2014 campaign rally. According to her, Biden kissed her on the back of the neck without her consent and made her feel uncomfortable. As a response to the accusation, Biden’s team released a statement stating that he does not recall the incident, but he believes that she has the right to share her recollection of the incident.

For a while, people on the internet have been calling him “Creepy Joe” because of other incidents that appeared on camera, which some people that may not be fans of Biden have compiled in some of the images below:

He has been considered a possible frontrunner for the 2020 Democratic nomination even though he hasn’t officially declared that he is running. Considering that the above pictures have been circulating for years, some may wonder why they are suddenly getting attention now. Maybe someone doesn’t want him to be the frontrunner for the nomination, and what better way to derail a nomination than releasing this stuff now?

Some people may bring up what happened to Donald Trump, but at that point it was too late since he was already the nominee and the general election was only a month away. Chances are, if Biden was the nominee and this came out as an October surprise you may see people biting their lips and voting for him anyway just to get Trump out of there, but by it happening now they can ensure that another nominee that doesn’t have as much dirt on them is nominated.

Yep, people knew this type of thing would haunt Biden in the current environment. This is a messaging campaign that's been going on for awhile, but it's undoubtedly an effective one. It will make his climb to the nomination more of an uphill battle than many think.

He should just throw in the towel before he even announces. This type of diversion will only fragment the democratic party while the GOP sits by and watches them tear each other apart.

@ad1x2: Hmm, interesting but I don´t think this will prevent Biden from winning if he decides to run.

This seems like a campaign to pressure him into not running since the other clowns in the democratic circus know that he is the frontrunner for the nomination.

@HoolaHoopMan: Eh, both parties need to go through the primary process. We are still in the realignment phase, so going through it now transcends the effect on a single election.

It will probably be ugly, but cest la vie.

I mean Trump has 20 sexual allegations against him and is even on tape admitting to how he likes to sexually assault woman, yet he won. I find it extremely hypocritial that Trump supporters would jump on this yet excuse Trump. Cultists.

Also the thread title is misleading,

Flores also said that while she did not claim that the behavior she described rose "to the level of a sexual assault or anything of that nature," it was "inappropriate."

What sexual advances?

You like to criticize posters that aren’t Democrats of resorting to whataboutism, but here you are engaging in it rather than addressing the accusations and the pictures. Don’t worry, you can criticize a Democrat without being a Trump supporter, and if you think criticizing Biden will make people mistake you for one then that’s your own insecurity you have to deal with.

As for that quote, most reasonable people would consider an unwelcome kiss as sexual regardless of later statements to the contrary. A smack in the ass followed by the words “good game” would still be considered sexual assault by many even if one or two people that it happened to said they didn’t think it was sexual.

Another thing is to this day, I honestly believe that if NBC released the Access Hollywood tape a year earlier either Hillary Clinton or Ted Cruz would be president right now. Instead, they held on to it until a month before the election thinking that it would be the finishing touch to hand the election to Clinton, only to find out that many Republicans would rather elect Trump than let the White House go to Democrats for at least four more years.

That’s the whole point of my final paragraph, by releasing it now before the primaries the DNC can push him aside and get behind someone else for the nomination (most likely Kamala Harris, but Beto is a possibility too) rather than go into damage control and continuing to back him during the general election in hopes that he can still win and deny Trump a second term.

Republicans? you do know right that this is coming from the Democrats right? it´s the Democrats who say that his "behaviour" is equal to Trump and making him invalid as a democratic candidate.

And also a demand that he apologises publically to Anita Hill lol, the Democrats are really blasting this out of proportions

I can't keep up...so this is unacceptable again?

@LJS9502_basic: The core of the issue is that this is unacceptable to most Democrats. Republicans will pretend to be outraged despite their candidates' history, but they can be ignored - the bottom line is that this is likely to turn enough Democratic primary voters away to deny him the nomination in a crowded field.

Democrats can two things. Support him but it will divide America even more or defile him which would make democrats look cowards towards the Republicans.

@ad1x2: Is there any reason your source says that he kissed her on the top of the head and you say back of the neck? Just wondering. They have two pretty different connotations in my experience.

I'm not going to say it's normal to kiss a 34 year old on the top of the head, but there's something far more sexual about kissing someone on the neck than on the top of the head.

I don't see why that should be part of their calculus. Republicans also claimed Obama was a Kenyan born Muslim socialist even after showing them his birth certificate and passing healthcare legislation based on their own template. There's no winning them over either way, so why bother trying?

What on earth makes you think that? Sure the people on the far side of the democratic left may turn away but the more moderate democrat and a majority will know this for what it is, a bad attempt from a known Bernie Sanders supporter to discredit Biden since he is the biggest threat to Sanders.

I messed up when I said neck instead of head.

This is likely to be an effective strategy for two reasons. 1) It links Biden to reprehensible behavior that disgusts members of that party by the leader of the opposing party. 2) More importantly, it continues and builds upon a longstanding narrative from over a year ago. The most damaging types of attacks are those that reinforce previously established perceptions.

Yeah that happens, no worries. Copy/paste and quotes really helps. Tends to be faster too.

I think you would be correct that this may be an effective scare campaign but considering who Biden is up against, I do not for one second think this will move enough democrats away from Biden to either Sanders or any of the other circus participants

And as to Republicans, who cares what they think, the best thing they can do is keep quiet and let the democrats destroy themselves IF Biden does not run I am willing to bet a lot more on a Trump re-election than I would if Biden did run.

Also, Biden's behaviour being assault is nonsense, so he kissed someone´s hair in a friendly gesture, so what.

People are really reaching. I don’t see anything but an old grandpa acting like a grandpa.

You can tell that the redhead is creeped right out.

He goes in for the kiss and she dodges in the video.

Yeah, that's pretty much where I'm at. I think the old grandpa needs to reconsider kissing 34 year olds on the top of the head because while it's endearing for kids it's not so endearing when done to adults, but all these other pictures are just him kissing little kids on the top of the head. That's what politicians have traditionally done for forever. Shaking hands and kissing babies is literally the stereotype of all politicians everywhere.

"See you at home I hope."

Seems like he was talking to his wife while not looking directly at her, but then again that's not something people ever do.

I guess we will have to see. We have to take into consideration that #metoo didn’t take off until a few months after Donald Trump became president and sexual assault allegations are probably more damaging now than a few years ago especially with Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein. They almost cost Kavanaugh his seat in the Supreme Court, probably cost Roy Moore in his senate run, and are not something the DNC is ready to deal with right now.

Besides, with the way things are right now, the DNC may feel that they have a better chance defeating Trump in 2020 with a woman or a minority than they would with another old white man. If Biden does run after all, I remember a few days ago reading that he may consider Stacey Abrams as his VP running mate, although she denied she would be his running-mate for the time being on The View.

Huh? I addressed that in the second part of my post.

I just also found it funny far right bozos are jumping on this while not caring about Trump's 1000x worse statements and allegations.

Well, the accuser disagrees with you. She said it wasn't sexual assault. He kissed her in the back of her head and she simply found it inappropriate.

@Serraph105 He was whispering sweet nothings into the ear of a 13 year old girl.

You could tell by her body language she was creeped out.

@zaryia: ‘I mean Trump has 20 sexual allegations against him and is even on tape admitting to how he likes to sexually assault woman’

Have you even listened to the tape? It was a commentary on fame and locker room talk - he didn’t admit to anything.

You can criticize both of them, you don’t have to excuse Biden or try to remind everyone how Trump is a thousand times worse because you think not excusing him will make some people mistake you for a Trump supporter, something you go above and beyond most other people in this forum to prove you aren’t.

As for the person who was kissed saying she didn’t think it was sexual assault, maybe she is being honest about her not seeing it that way. Or maybe she thinks (or was advised) that Biden has the best shot at beating Trump in 2020 and she’s walking back her original statement for the good of the party. I don’t know, I can’t read her mind. If she felt from the beginning that she wasn’t assaulted it is unlikely she would have spoken up in the first place especially now with #metoo being enough to destroy even the most powerful men in and out of politics.

Not to mention in some cases assault victims in general (not just sexual assault victims) will deny they were assaulted for various personal or psychological reasons. Look how Rihanna acted after she got assaulted by Chris Brown, and how she lashed out at people calling her out for getting back with the man that beat her into the hospital and now has a felony conviction on his record for it.

I mean you're just reaching now.

She said it wasn't sexual assault.

@ad1x2: That’s the whole point of my final paragraph, by releasing it now before the primaries the DNC can push him aside and get behind someone else for the nomination (most likely Kamala Harris, but Beto is a possibility too) rather than go into damage control and continuing to back him during the general election in hopes that he can still win and deny Trump a second term.

Wait, so your point is that by releasing this now, which this was all put out at some point last year, it's a scheme by the media to help democrats by getting rid of their most popular candidate early?

How is this a new thing? These photos are years old and everyone already knew about creepy Joe. If manufacturing outrage will change how dems see the guy now, the party and the country deserves whatever is coming to them with allowing Trump to get the second term.

And if the "family values" party tries to shit on Biden because of this, just remind them of the most recent uncovered pedo of their group - David Stringer.

You sound like you're trying to convince yourself that this is true.

You sound like you're trying to convince yourself it isn't.

I got your campaign slogan for 2020. "We don't always creep on 13 year old girls, but when we do it's with Joe Biden."

The pictures aren't new, the Lucy Flores allegations are.

@Damedius: Hey, at least creeping on a 13 year old is not as bad as Trump acually raping one.

Trump raped a 13 year old?

Edit : Okay I see what you are talking about now. Jeffrey Epstein the pedophile who got off with basically a slap on the wrist for sleeping with and pimping out underage girls.

He is connected to a lot of powerful people. I doubt any of them will ever face justice.

There are pictures of him hugging a kissing men too.

What a nothinburger.

@Serraph105: Biden is the dems most popular candidate? How freaking pathetic is that, wow lol.

@vfighter: I'm just telling you what the polls say. Being the former vp carries a lot of political weight it seems.

well if a presidential bid doesn't work out Biden can always start a ASMR channel on youtube.

Being fair, it's been decades since a really good, solid, well-bred candidate ran for the Presidency regardless of party.

I like WaPo's spin calling it "affectionate, sometime intimate, physical style"

Biden is stomps Trump in recent polling,

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/general_election_trump_vs_biden-6247.html

Including FOX. Not so much pathetic of a horse to back.

What would you call it? Even the "accuser" didn't say it was sexual, nor did it sound as much.

It makes you wonder what her point even was. If you're going to accuse someone of something then have the courage to actually do it, otherwise you make them look good and yourself look foolish.

I will offer my cynical take on this whole "controversy". He's been accused by a former democratic politician who was seeking office. Her initial complaint is believable. Allegedly, Biden walked up behind her, rubbed her shoulders, smelled her hair, then kissed the back of her head. She states she didn't really know him and that it made her feel uncomfortable. I think many woman would feel that way with any man doing something similar. On the other hand, I don't think Biden meant anything harmful or demeaning by it. He's just that kind of person - a very charismatic, affectionate, slap on you on the back kind of person. It doesn't excuse what many would consider inappropriate behavior, but I think it puts it into better perspective.

It would have been preferrable had someone simply talked to him behind closed doors about this behavior. Saying something like, "I know you mean no harm, but it makes some people uncomfortable and this is why . . . " Problem would have been successfully addressed.

However, I think this current revelation is more politically motivated. Biden, is an 76 year old white male and not what some people on the left want as their representative for president. He was an early frontrunner - in terms of polls, he hasnt declared yet - but I think this is an attempt to knock him out of the race.

Trump posted a meme of Biden creeping on himself today on twitter lmao

rofl his hypocrisy knows no bounds.