Before you accept Flores's story about Biden, you need to read this.

[highplainsdem]

I want to bring up one paragraph from the article about this in The Cut, a paragraph which the Mediaite article posted here earlier LEFT OUT.

https://www.mediaite.com/online/breaking-ex-nevada-dem-assemblywoman-accuses-joe-biden-of-blatantly-inappropriate-and-unnerving-behavior/

Probably they left that one paragraph out because it sheds a different light on Biden's behavior, and suggests a different, perfectly innocent motivation.

This is the paragraph, part of Flores's account:

https://www.thecut.com/2019/03/an-awkward-kiss-changed-how-i-saw-joe-biden.html

I found my way to the holding room for the speakers, where everyone was chatting, taking photos, and getting ready to speak to the hundreds of voters in the audience. Just before the speeches, we were ushered to the side of the stage where we were lined up by order of introduction. As I was taking deep breaths and preparing myself to make my case to the crowd, I felt two hands on my shoulders. I froze. “Why is the vice-president of the United States touching me?”

That sounds to me as if she was obviously nervous, possibly even appearing panicky to someone like Biden. Her deep breathing could have looked like hyperventilating to those around her.

So Biden could very likely have put his hands on her shoulders as a reassuring gesture, and he could have gently kissed the back of her head for the same reason.

Obviously the attempt at reassurance backfired, and Flores took offense -- in part, it seems, because she wondered if her hair smelled dirty.

I felt him get closer to me from behind. He leaned further in and inhaled my hair. I was mortified. I thought to myself, “I didn’t wash my hair today and the vice-president of the United States is smelling it. And also, what in the actual fuck? Why is the vice-president of the United States smelling my hair?” 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. There is a Spanish saying, “tragame tierra,” it means, “earth, swallow me whole.” I couldn’t move and I couldn’t say anything. I wanted nothing more than to get Biden away from me. My name was called and I was never happier to get on stage in front of an audience.

IMO she's correct that her "brain couldn't process what was happening."

She needed to realize that if she was standing there feeling very nervous, taking deep breaths, she WOULD look like someone who needed to be reassured.

And if you think there's anything unusual about someone putting their hands on your shoulders to reassure you if you seem nervous, I suggest you google it.

Sigh.

I think it's a shame that Flores apparently never even CONSIDERED the possibility that Biden, a much more confident and experienced politician, was trying to reassure a younger, obviously nervous candidate before she went on stage.

I think it's even more of a shame that she never thought to ASK him about this or let him know he'd made her uncomfortable -- until now, when the fact Biden is leading Bernie in the polls, and she's a Bernie supporter, might make people question her timing.

And I think it's particularly grotesque, and journalistic malpractice, that Mediate very deliberately left out the part of her account that could help explain what Biden did.

Anyway, I think it's not just possible but LIKELY that Biden did act to reassure her, and those around them could've noticed and realized he was just trying to reassure her when she was obviously nervous, and for that reason had not given his behavior a second thought.

While Flores herself, who didn't process this correctly, has held a grudge against Biden for years.