Defeated 2018 Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams said Tuesday that former Vice President Joe Biden shouldn’t be disqualified from running for president for the “mistakes” he has made.
“We have got to be better, but we can’t disqualify people because they made mistakes. And so, I’m watching the vice president. I want to make certain that he truly understands why those women were uncomfortable,” Abrams said on CNN.
Stacey Abrams on the allegations of unwanted touching against Joe Biden: “We have got to be better, but we can’t disqualify people because they made mistakes. I’m watching the Vice President. I want to make certain that he truly understands why those women were uncomfortable” pic.twitter.com/OVc9cKD5Tb
— CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) April 9, 2019
Biden, 76, has been accused by a number of women of being overly touchy-feely. He responded with a video posted to Twitter where he said he would work on respecting others’ personal space, although he was criticized for making light of the complaints at an event in Washington, D.C., last week.
Should he decide to run for president, there has been speculation that Biden might choose Abrams, who lost the 2018 Georgia race for governor by a slim margin, as his running mate. Both Biden and Abrams have denied the rumors but have been seen meeting together in the nation’s capital, further fueling speculation. Meantime, Abrams has said she is even considering a 2020 run herself.
Abrams, 45, is seen as a rising star in the Democratic Party, and if she had won the race in Georgia last year, she would have been the first black female governor.
Biden is expected to announce a run for president in the coming weeks. He leads the Democratic pack at 29.7% of the vote in a RealClearPolitics average of polls of the announced and potential Democratic candidates.
[Also read: Pelosi: Biden needs to understand ‘it isn’t what you intended, it’s how it was received’]
