A former Nevada politician claims that she was forcibly kissed by former Vice President Joe Biden as he helped campaign for her back in 2014.
Lucy Flores, a Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in Nevada in 2014, has revealed in a bombshell essay that Biden crossed the line with her physically as they worked together, leaving her feeling ‘gross and confused’.
As Flores, then 35, and Biden, then 72, were at a rally for her campaign on November 1, 2014, Biden allegedly grabbed her by the shoulders from behind and kissed her hair.
‘Biden was the second-most powerful man in the country and, arguably, one of the most powerful men in the world. He was there to promote me as the right person for the lieutenant governor job,’ Flores wrote in a personal essay for The Cut.
‘Instead, he made me feel uneasy, gross, and confused,’ she added.
Former Nevada politician Lucy Flores has come forward saying former Vice President Joe Biden kissed her on the back of her head without her consent as they campaigned together in 2014. She was 35 at the time and Biden, then 72, was Vice President
She revealed on Friday in a personal essay that Biden planted a ‘big slow kiss’ on the back of her head before she went on stage at a rally for her campaign on November 1, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada (Flores and Biden pictured above at that event)
Before the event: Flores pictured with Biden and actress Eva Longoria prior to the awkward kiss
She recalled that before she went on stage to speak, Biden approached her and gave her the awkward, unwarranted kiss.
‘I felt two hands on my shoulders. I froze. Why is the vice-president of the United States touching me?’ Flores recalled.
‘I felt him get closer to me from behind. He leaned further in and inhaled my hair. I was mortified. I thought to myself, “I didn’t wash my hair today and the vice-president of the United States is smelling it. And also, what in the actual f**k?”
‘He proceeded to plant a big slow kiss on the back of my head. My brain couldn’t process what was happening. I was embarrassed. I was shocked. I was confused,’ she added.
She compared her feeling of shock and immobility to a Spanish phrase, ‘tragame tierra’ which means ‘earth, swallow me whole’.
Biden pictured above at the November 1, 2014 rally before introducing Lucy Flores, the candidate for lieutenant governor in Nevada, to the podium
‘He made me feel uneasy, gross, and confused,’ Flores recalled on the awkward moment where Biden grabbed her shoulders and kissed the back of her hair
‘I couldn’t move and I couldn’t say anything. I wanted nothing more than to get Biden away from me. My name was called and I was never happier to get on stage in front of an audience,’ Flores said.
Flores noted that the contact wasn’t violent nor overtly sexual – but she found the uncalled for contact ‘demeaning and disrespectful’.
She went on to say that as a young Latina woman working in the white male dominated field of politics, she was used to feeling uncomfortable, but this awkward kiss crossed the line.
‘I had never experienced anything so blatantly inappropriate and unnerving before,’ she said.
‘The vice-president of the United States of America had just touched me in an intimate way reserved for close friends, family, or romantic partners — and I felt powerless to do anything about it,’ she said.
She didn’t report the incident, thinking that it didn’t rise to the level of sexual assault.
Instead she did ‘what most women do’ and moved on with her life and work.