Biden vows to be 'more sensitive' about showing affection after inappropriate touching allegations

Joe Biden has said that he needs to be “more sensitive” about whether to show affection in the wake of allegations from a number of women that the 2020 candidate touched them inappropriately.

Speaking with his wife Jill during his first major interview since announcing his run for the presidency, Mr Biden said that he had a “responsibility” to judge his behaviour better having faced accusations that he had made women feel awkward and embarrassed when greeting them.

“I've always thought that part of leadership, part of politics was listening to people, hearing them, making them feel comfortable,” Mr Biden told ABC’s Good Morning America.

“It's my responsibility to be more sensitive to whether or not someone wants me to reassure them or wants to say hello or wants to show affection. And that's my responsibility.”

Former Nevada assembly member Lucy Flores was the first to speak out about Mr Biden, writing an essay about an incident from 2014 where Mr Biden put his hands on Ms Flores’ shoulders, smelt her hair and kissed the back of her head at a political event. Ms Flores wrote in New York Magazine’s The Cut that the behaviour was “demeaning and disrespectful” and wrote of the “power imbalance” that Mr Biden was the beneficiary of.

“I didn't even know what to do,” she later told ABC News. “I didn't know how to react… It was the president of the United States of America, you don’t expect that to happen.”

Further accusations followed and Mr Biden released a video statement that said he understood that ”social norms are changing”. He promised he would be “much more mindful.”

But days later he joked about “having permission” to hug union leader Lonnie Stephenson during an event, which got cheers from a largely male audience. There has been no outright apology for his actions.

Ms Biden said that her husband has to now judge whether to approach people or not. “I think what you don't realise is how many people approach Joe. Men and women, looking for comfort or empathy,” she said. “But going forward, I think he's gonna have to judge — be a better judge — of when people approach him, how he's going to react. That he maybe shouldn't approach them.”

Mr Biden was also asked about the treatment of Anita Hill during Senate testimony as part of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ confirmation hearing in 1991. She had accused Justice Thomas of sexual harassment, which Mr Thomas had denied. A young black law professor, Ms Hill faced aggressive questioning from the all-white, all-male judiciary committee that Mr Biden chaired.

“I believed her from the very beginning, but I was chairman. She did not get a fair hearing. She did not get treated well. That's my responsibility,” Mr Biden told ABC. “As the committee chairman, I take responsibility that she did not get treated well. I take responsibility for that.”

Mr Biden is the frontrunner to take the Democratic presidential nomination, with a new CNN poll putting him well ahead of the more than 20 people who have declared to run in the Democrat primary.

The poll of 1,007 adults in the days following Mr Biden’s campaign announcement shows 39 per cent of Democrat voters or Democrat-leaning independent voters would pick the former vice president as their top choice. That is more than 20 percentage points up on Vermont senator Bernie Sanders who is second with 15 per cent. Since his campaign launch, support for Mr Biden has increased by 11 per cent according to the poll.