At ease, Joe.
President Joe Biden raised eyebrows — and a few alarms — Friday when he lavishly complimented a little girl on her appearance during remarks at a Virginia military base.
“I love those barrettes in your hair, man,” Biden said. “I tell you what, look at her, she looks like she’s 19 years old, sitting there like a little lady with her legs crossed.”
The girl in question, who appeared to be elementary school age, had joined her parents and two older brothers on the podium while her mother introduced the president at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Hampton, Virginia.
Biden’s bizarre aside was noted and tweeted by The Post Millennial, causing a commotion on Twitter.
“That’s pretty *&^%$!ed up,” tweeted longtime Republican consultant Nathan Wurtzel, who joked in a subsequent tweet: “I guess this explains the Lincoln Project support.”
Other reactions were even more succinct.
“Um, wut,” tweeted RealClearPolitics co-founder Tom Bevan, while Ricochet editor-in-chief Jon Gabriel chimed in, “dude has issues.”
“Creeeeeeep!” reacted Fox News contributor Johnny “Joey” Jones, while Townhall.com senior editor Matt Vespa tweeted: “To Catch a Predator”.
“This is going to be his last straw,” conservative podcast host and Spectator USA contributor Stephen Miller captioned an image of Kathy Bates taking a sledgehammer to James Caan’s legs in the movie “Misery.” “We’re not going to see him [Biden] for the next two weeks.”
Biden has a long history of awkward encounters with girls and young women. In February, he told an Arizona nurse during a video conference that she looked “like a freshman” in college.
During his time as vice president, Biden became notorious for getting too close to women for comfort. During Ash Carter’s swearing-in ceremony as defense secretary in 2015, Biden stood behind Carter’s wife Stephanie, held her by her shoulders and occasionally whispered in her ear. Earlier that year, Biden whispered to the then-13-year-old daughter of Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and gave her a kiss on the head after swearing in his fellow First Stater.
Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign was nearly ended before it began when in March 2019, former Nevada lawmaker Lucy Flores claimed the then-vice president grabbed her by the shoulders and kissed her hair during a Las Vegas campaign event in 2014.
Days later, after three more women accused him of inappropriate contact, Biden released a video in which he promised to “be more mindful and respectful of people’s personal space.”
*story by The New York Post
