Pelosi: Biden allegations not ‘disqualifying’ for 2020
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said accusations of inappropriate behavior against former Vice President Joe Biden should not prevent him from seeking the Democratic nomination in 2020.
“I don’t think it’s disqualifying,” the California Democrat said Tuesday at a Politico event when asked about the allegations against Biden by two women.
She said Biden, who has long been known to be physically affectionate toward his male and female friends, needs to better understand the importance of people’s personal space.
“He has to understand that in the world we’re in now that people’s space is important to them,” Pelosi said.
“I do think it’s about communication in general,” she said. She called herself “a member of the straight-arm club,” demonstrating a rigid extension of her right arm for a handshake. “I just pretend you have a cold and I have a cold.”
Last week, former Nevada state representative Lucy Flores said in an article for New York magazine that Biden gave her an unsolicited touch on the shoulders and kissed the back of her head as she prepared to take the stage at a political rally in 2014.
And the day Pelosi made her comment, the Hartford Courant reported that a second woman, Amy Lappos, 43, said Biden grabbed her head and rubbed noses with her at a fundraiser in Connecticut in 2009.
Biden said in a statement Sunday that he did not recall the incident with Flores but that he doesn’t believe he
“He has to understand that in the world we’re in now that people’s space is important to them.” Rep. Nancy Pelosi
ever “acted inappropriately.”
“If it is suggested I did so, I will listen respectfully. But it was never my intention,” he said.
Pelosi said Tuesday: “I think that it’s important for the vice president and others to understand is it isn’t what was intended, it’s how it was received. To say ‘I’m sorry that you were offended’ is not an apology.”
Biden’s potential opponents in the 2020 Democratic primary have not said they believe the allegations disqualify him from running, but many of them have said the behavior is a question he will have to address if he plans to seek the nomination.