Former Senator Martha McSally of Arizona recently reignited a debate about Joe Biden’s past treatment of women and girls when she made explosive claims on a Fox News segment that detailed an incident she said happened when Biden was a senator in the 1980s.
McSally claimed Biden cornered her in a Capitol Hill gym and inappropriately touched and “invaded” her personal space. She also alleged Biden joked about her appearance and said he “needs more women in the U.S. Senate”.
The Biden campaign issued a statement denying the incident took place, saying “Vice President Biden remembers political figures coming to the Senate in the decades he served with great fondness but he had no recollection of the incident Ms. McSally described.”
Though the Biden campaign has vigorously denied these accusations, they have become the latest example of the Biden’s past behavior with women and girls coming under scrutiny. In the wake of the Me Too movement’s success in exposing sexual assault and harassment in 2018, criticism of Biden’s past behavior towards adolescent girls reached a new level of scrutiny.
As the 2020 election looms closer, it remains to be seen what impact these allegations will have on American voters. For the time being, the Biden campaign continues to emphasize and defend Biden’s “unwavering commitment to respecting women” and stressing his “commitment to gender equality”.
