A former senior staffer came to former Vice President Joe Biden’s defense Sunday after he was accused by a Nevada Democratic official of inappropriately kissing her at a campaign rally in 2014.
Cynthia Hogan, now a vice president at Apple, said in a statement that during her time working with the former vice president, both in the executive branch and when he was a senator, he was “wonderful” because of the way that he treated women.
“I have often been asked what it was like to work in the U.S. Senate (a famously all-male environment) in the early to mid 1990’s. I can happily answer that my experience was wonderful BECAUSE I was lucky enough to work for Joe Biden, who had promoted several women, including me, to leadership roles on the staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and who treated us with respect and insisted that others do the same,” Hogan wrote.
Hogan, who worked on the Senate Judiciary Committee staff from 1991 to 1996 and then as counsel to the vice president from 2009 to 2013, gave a couple examples of the way she says Biden treats women.
“Towards the end of the first President Bush Administration, a senior White House official came to then Senator Biden’s office for a meeting,” she wrote. “ … Senator Biden welcomed him and asked if he wanted some water or coffee. The official turned to me and said ‘coffee, black.’” Senator Biden then said to him ‘I’ll get the coffee,’ ‘Cynthia, why don’t you start the meeting.’”
“This was what it was like to work for Joe Biden, who mentored and promoted and protected the women who worked for him,” Hogan wrote.
On Friday, Lucy Flores, 39, wrote Biden kissed her on the back of her head during a campaign even in 2014. She has since been interviewed and says that in her opinion the incident should disqualify him for the presidency. Biden said in a statement Sunday he never thought he acted inappropriately to women on the campaign trail or while in office.
Despite not yet announcing a run, Biden is largely expected to announce his candidacy in the coming weeks. He is leading in the polls nationwide.
