Earlier this week, controversy surrounded former Vice President Joe Biden.
Two women came forward with stories that involved Biden inserting himself in their personal space.
With Twitter up in arms, Alyssa Milano decided to step in and recount her experiences with Biden. Here’s what happened.
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The first woman came forward with a story from 2014.
Nevada State Senator Lucy Flores published a lengthy essay with The Cut.
It was titled, “An Awkward Kiss Changed How I Saw Joe Biden.”
She recounts an interaction she had with Biden at a campaign rally in 2014.
Flores had a disturbing encounter.
Right before she was due to go on stage for the rally, Biden approached her from behind. She wrote:
“I felt him get closer to me from behind. He leaned further in and inhaled my hair. I was mortified.”
Uh…what?
It didn’t stop there…
After smelling her hair, Biden then leaned in again.
“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.”
Who does that to someone they don’t even know?
Needless to say, that was creepy.
To put a real-world context to it, Flores wrote:
“Imagine you’re at work and a male colleague who you have no personal relationship with approaches you from behind, smells your hair, and kisses you on the head.
Now imagine it’s the CEO of the company.”
So, yeah. That was inappropriate, to say the least.
Another woman shared her story a few days later.
Amy Lappos met Joe Biden in 2009 at a political fundraiser in Greenwich.
As she [described it] to The Courant, ( https://www.courant.com/politics/hc-pol-biden-grabbed-aide-20190401-vl7chim3hrdjtcwu2tszrhozzm-story.html ) “It wasn’t sexual, but he did grab me by the head.”
Biden then put his face to hers
She went on:
“He put his hand around my neck and pulled me in to rub noses with me. When he was pulling me in, I thought he was going to kiss me on the mouth.”
Both women never reported the incident.
Biden was a man with considerable power, and Lappos didn’t come forward because of who he was.
Lappos explained, “I never filed a complaint, to be honest, because he was the vice president. I was a nobody.”
She then slammed her point home.
Even though she didn’t report it, Lappos has some strong feelings on the incident.
“There’s absolutely a line of decency. There’s a line of respect. Crossing that line is not grandfatherly. It’s not cultural. It’s not affection. It’s sexism or misogyny.”
Good. For. Her.
Enter Alyssa Milano.
Actress and political activist Alyssa Milano heard about both incidents.
She decided to make a Twitter thread outline all the reasons that Joe Biden is a good guy, which…no one asked her to do, but okay.
She touched on Biden’s history with women.
She also tweeted about his role in “It’s On Us,” which was created to help try and stop sexual assault.
Joe Biden and President Barack Obama created the initiative in 2014.
She also touched on Biden’s own statement.
The issue, of course, is not what Biden intended to do! It’s that he felt entitled to breach someone’s personal space in the first place.
However, his willingness to learn was posted on his Instagram.
And added this puzzling statement.
She made a number of good points, but lost it near the end.
As far as I can see, no one made any assumptions about other women’s experiences. I don’t know what happened here.
People had some thoughts.
This tweet succinctly summed the situation up.
Whether Alyssa was right or not, a thread defending Joe did less for him than one where she could have held him accountable for his actions.
Especially since he does this kind of thing…a lot
While this may seem fine to many people, I don’t know if I’d be cool with letting a world leader touch my child in such a manner.
Nitpicking? Maybe. But doing this sort of thing is definitely odd.
Some people agreed with Alyssa, however.
Whether you agree or not, it’s good to know that Biden took these two incidents seriously and spoke on it.
However, it’s also okay if this made you feel uncomfortable. Life is complicated, y’all.
