President Trump has no room to comment on the multiple allegations of unwanted touching leveled against former Vice President Joe Biden.
Glass houses and all that.
At least eight women have come forward recently to accuse Biden of inappropriate physical contact. One woman claims she feels “a sense of shame and belittlement” whenever she thinks back on the time Biden gently took her hands in his and touched their foreheads together. Another woman claims Biden smelled her hair and then planted a kiss on the back of her neck, which she says she definitely did not solicit. Other accusations include that Biden placed his hand inappropriately on the small of a woman’s back. Yet another woman claims the former vice president touched her thigh. Then there are all the photos and videos showing Biden getting very hands-on with various wives, teens, and children.
Biden, for his part, defended himself Wednesday, saying in a video shared on social media that he tends to get touchy-feely with friends, supporters, and colleagues because it is his way of showing “gestures of support and encouragement.”
Then the president entered the discussion.
“WELCOME BACK JOE!” Trump said this week in a tweet that included a meme of Biden fondling himself.
WELCOME BACK JOE! pic.twitter.com/b2NbBSX3sx
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 4, 2019
This sort of trolling nonsense is so far below the office of the president of the United States, it is practically next to dinosaur bones. Also, there is the arguably larger issue that Trump himself has bragged specifically about making unsolicited physical contact with women.
Recall that he boasted in a 2005 audio recording, “I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.”
Moreover, there is a reasonably extensive list of women who have accused the president explicitly of inappropriate contact.
A former Trump campaign aide, for example, claims she was the target of “unwanted sexual attention” from Trump. She says he kissed her without consent, making her feel “reduced to just another object.” A then-aspiring model claims Trump fondled her genitals when she sat next to him in a nightclub in the 1990s. A former contestant on NBC’s "The Apprentice," which Trump hosted for years, claims she, too, was the target of inappropriate touching from the now-commander in chief. During the 2016 presidential election, at least 10 women came forward to accuse Trump of inappropriate physical contact.
In fact, since the 1970s, roughly 23 women have accused Trump of assorted acts of sexual misconduct, some of the allegations being far more serious than others.
There is probably a larger criticism that can be made for Biden and his history of reportedly uncomfortable and intrusive interactions with constituents and colleagues. But let that criticism come from someone who has not himself quite literally boasted of doing the exact same.