Lucy Flores, the woman accusing former Vice President Joe Biden of inappropriately kissing her at a campaign rally in 2014, said that she thinks Biden’s statement on the matter doesn’t hit at the core of the complaint.
“I’m glad that he’s willing to listen. I’m that glad he is clarifying his intentions. Frankly, my point was never about his intentions, and they shouldn’t be about his intentions. It should be about the women on the receiving end of that behavior,” she said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Flores, 39, wrote a piece for the “The Cut” describing the alleged 2014 incident. She said the unwelcome kiss occurred quickly and she didn’t know how to process what happened.
“Well, it happened all so suddenly. Anyone who has ever been at a rally recognizes there’s just chaos, there’s a lot of energy. Everyone is running back and forth. Eva Longoria was there, we were all lined up next to the stage, Eva was in front of me, Joe Biden was behind me,” Flores said Sunday. “Very unexpectedly and out of nowhere I feel Joe Biden put his hands on my shoulders, get up very close to me from behind, lean in, smell my hair and then plant a slow kiss on the top of my head.”
“It was just shocking. It was shocking. You don’t expect that kind of intimate behavior. You don’t expect that kind of intimacy from someone so powerful and someone who you just have no relationship whatsoever to touch you and to feel you and to be so close to you in that way,” Flores added.
In his statement just before Flores’ CNN appearance, Biden said “not once – never” did he think he acted inappropriately to women.
The former assemblywoman was asked whether politics motivated her to come forward. Flores, who supported Sen. Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential race and was at a rally for Beto O’Rourke on Saturday, said politics was her main driving reason.
“I would say politics was definitely the impetus. The reason we’re having these conversations about Vice President Joe Biden is because he’s considering running for president,” she said.
Flores said that to her the kiss disqualified Biden as candidate. She said there were other credible instances of Biden acting inappropriately toward women.
“Never do I claim that it rises to the level of a sexual assault or anything of that nature. What I am saying is that it’s completely inappropriate, that it does not belong in any kind of a professional setting, much less in politics,” Flores said.
