A day after Joe Biden released a cellphone video on Twitter addressing claims that he had violated the personal spaces of two women, President Donald Trump tweeted a response making fun of the former vice president. Then Biden responded to the mocking tweet with one of his own.
“Social norms have begun to change. They've shifted," the 76-year-old Biden said in the video on Wednesday. "And the boundaries of protecting personal space have been reset. And I get it. I get it. I hear what they are saying. I understand."
In Trump’s parody video, a second Biden comes behind the former vice president while he’s talking and puts his hands on his shoulders.
In the tweet the president says, “WELCOME BACK JOE!”
In response, Biden said "I see that you are on the job and presidential, as always."
The video was Biden's first direct comment on what has tripped up his preparations to enter the 2020 Democratic presidential campaign. He did not directly apologize but seemed to be seeking to ease some people's discomfort, which has raised questions about whether he could wage an effective campaign.
On Friday, former Nevada politician Lucy Flores wrote in New York Magazine that Biden approached her from behind, touched her shoulders and kissed the back of her head in 2014.
Since then, another woman has said Biden grabbed her face when he was thanking congressional staff at a 2009 event. On Wednesday, The Washington Post reported that three additional women had recounted uncomfortable encounters with Biden. One of them, Vail Kohnert-Yount, said she was a White House intern in the spring of 2013 when she met Biden in the West Wing and, as they chatted, he put his hand on the back of her head and pressed his forehead to hers and called her a "pretty girl."
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
