Tag: Lucy Flores

Ethan Miller/Getty Images Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., under pressure to respond to allegations that he touched and kissed a former Nevada assemblywoman, Lucy Flores, went on the defensive Sunday morning with a sweeping statement saying he did not believe he acted inappropriately but acknowledging that he had made “expressions of affection” during his years on the campaign trail. “But we have arrived at an important time when women feel they can and should relate their experiences, and men should pay attention. Ms. Flores, responding on Sunday morning to Mr. Biden’s statement, said she was glad the former vice president was willing to listen and clarify his intentions. “And this is something that we should consider when we’re talking about the background of a person who is considering running for president.” “For me it’s disqualifying,” she added. Democratic presidential candidates weighed in on Sunday morning, indicating that they believed Ms. Flores’s allegations but remaining circumspect about the potential political fallout for Mr. Biden. “I have no reason not to believe Lucy,” Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont said on says on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Asked if allegations should disqualify Mr. Biden from running for president, Mr. Sanders said: “I think that’s a decision for the vice president to make. His party calls it completely inappropriate.” Political pressure began to mount on Mr. Biden on Saturday as Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is also a 2020 candidate, said in Iowa that she believed Ms. Flores and called on the former vice president to respond to the allegations. In her CNN interview on Sunday, Ms. Flores called Mr. Munoz’s statement “entirely irrelevant” because its premise was that she and Mr. Biden were never alone, a claim Ms. Flores said she never made. After her piece published Friday, she said she had been “prepared for the worst.” But she said she has been surprised by the amount of positive feedback and support she has received. On Tuesday, he expressed regret for his role in the hearing, saying, “To this day, I regret I couldn’t give her the kind of hearing she deserved.” As Ms. Flores noted in her essay, Mr. Biden has also faced scrutiny over the years for pictures and videos that have shown him standing close to women and sometimes touching them on the shoulders, whispering in their ears and even giving kisses.