FORMER US Vice President Joe Biden has said he does not recall “inappropriately” kissing a 35-year-old political candidate and smelling her hair in 2014. Democrat Lucy Flores accused the 76-year-old of planting a “big slow kiss” on the back of her head in a first-person essay for New York Magazine. This was an incredibly difficult […]
FORMER US Vice President Joe Biden has said he does not recall “inappropriately” kissing a 35-year-old political candidate and smelling her hair in 2014.
Democrat Lucy Flores accused the 76-year-old of planting a “big slow kiss” on the back of her head in a first-person essay for New York Magazine.
She claimed that the politician started “touching her” moments before they were due to give a joint speech in Nevada back in 2014.
“As I was taking deep breaths and preparing myself to make my case to the crowd, I felt two hands on my shoulders,” she wrote.
“I froze. ‘Why is the vice-president of the United States touching me?’
“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?”
“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.”
At the time, she was a 35-year-old Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in Nevada and Biden was the vice president under the Obama administration.
Flores said Biden’s behaviour made her feel “uneasy, gross, and confused,” adding, “Even if his behaviour wasn’t violent or sexual, it was demeaning and disrespectful.”
The allegation has emerged as Biden prepares for a potential White House campaign.
Biden’s spokesman Bill Russo said in a statement on Friday: “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.”
Russo said Biden “believes Ms Flores has every right to share her own recollection and reflections, and that it’s a change for the better in our society that she has the opportunity to do so.”
