MSNBC “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough Tuesday sought to defend Joe Biden against charges he nuzzles too close to women by displaying a photo of Biden placing his face gently on the back of the head of Scarborough’s son.
“I want to show a picture to everybody. This is Joe Biden with my son,” Scarborough said, dramatically extending his arm toward the show’s camera with his smartphone in hand to show viewers the photo. “You see what he’s doing? Hand on the shoulders, whispering to him quietly, reassuring him. He was nervous. Telling him, ‘Hey buddy, how are you doin’? How’s school going?'”
“This is what Joe Biden does to kids,” Scarborough said in an attempt to argue that complaints over Biden’s interactions with women were normal for the 2020 Democratic presidential frontrunner. “He’s learned his lesson, I’m sure, he’s going to back away — but to suggest that there was something malicious in what he was doing, or that he was getting his kicks from doing that? Sorry, there’s about 45 years of public experience that suggests that’s not true.”
in same segment, Mika also bluntly said Lucy Flores has misinterpreted her moment with Biden
“He’s not interested in your hair, OK. He was going on stage and he took a deep breath” pic.twitter.com/6d5Qr5UOdt
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) April 30, 2019
Near the beginning of April before the 2020 Democratic presidential frontrunner announced his candidacy, more than eight women came forward with experiences of uncomfortable, unwanted contact from Biden, such as too-long hugs and a kiss on the back of the head.
Co-host Mika Brzezinski was visibly frustrated by the media focus on Biden’s interactions with women.
“The amount of time that has been spent on Biden’s hugs. This is a guy who has hugged five to 10 million people, and they loved the fact that he’s touchy and huggy and they run to him, and five women are uncomfortable with the way he hugged them.”
Brzezinski’s estimate of the number of people Biden has hugged, five to 10 million, would equate to Biden hugging an average of around 280 to 560 women per day since he began his career in public office nearly 50 years ago in 1970 as a city councilman in Delaware.
In an interview on “The View” last week, Biden said that he needs be more aware of personal space.
“Sorry I invaded your space,” Biden said. “I’m sorry this happened. But I’m not sorry in the sense that I think I did anything that was intentionally designed to do anything wrong or be inappropriate. It was inappropriate that I didn’t understand — that I assumed.”
