Washington Post opinion writer Jonathan Capehart said he had an encounter with “close talking” Joe Biden, telling MSNBC host Hallie Jackson on Monday that he had had his own “intimate” experience with the former vice president. Biden was accused of unwanted touching and inappropriate physical conduct by Lucy Flores at a 2014 campaign event in Nevada in an essay she wrote for The Cut on Friday.
“I have to say — as someone who has been in a situation with close-talking Vice President Biden — I have had the same interaction with him, a very intimate interaction,” Capehart said. “He put his forehead on my forehead. It was in November 2017. I had just done a one-on-one conversation with him in Schenectady (New York), and he was really happy with the way it went.”
“It was his way of congratulating me, congratulating us on an event that was well done,” Capehart added while also clarifying to a confused-sounding Jackson that the vice-president had never made any attempt to kiss him.
Reps for Capehart and the Washington Post did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Though Capehart said his moment with Biden as “the same interaction,” it was considerably less physical than the one described by Flores. In her essay, Flores wrote that Biden touched her shoulders, kissed the back of her head and smelled her hair without her permission during a 2014 rally during her unsuccessful campaign for Lt. Governor of Nevada.
“My brain couldn’t process what was happening. I was embarrassed. I was shocked. I was confused,” she wrote. “I couldn’t move and I couldn’t say anything. I wanted nothing more than to get Biden away from me.”
In a statement released over the weekend, Biden said he remembered things differently from Flores — but that he respected her recollection of events as well.
“In my many years on the campaign trail and in public life, I have offered countless handshakes, hugs, expressions of affection, support and comfort,” Biden said. “And not once — never — did I believe I acted inappropriately. If it is suggested I did so, I will listen respectfully. But it was never my intention.”
Flores did not immediately respond to request for comment from TheWrap.