General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: We must define acceptable and nonacceptable touching [View all]MineralMan
(146,350 posts)He's old enough to have learned about being touchy-feely only in appropriate circumstances, as I have learned over the years. In fact, I learned that in my 20s and 30s. Does that mean that I have never done something that caused discomfort in someone sometime since. I don't remember doing that, but it's entirely possible that it happened without any comment at the time.
So, it wouldn't be surprising if a public figure like Joe Biden or, say, Al Franken caused someone some discomfort at one time or another by some overly personal physical contact. I'd be surprised if anyone could say that never happened.
Here's what I think about retrospective discomfort being reported long after something occurred: It's not something that should destroy a political campaign or career. A belated apology for the behavior is enough, as long as the contact wasn't blatantly sexual.
Politicians are public figures who encounter thousands of people up close. If someone recalls something that made him or her uncomfortable, I see no problem if they say it happened. If they do, then the politician apologizes and that should be that, except in the case of blatant sexual intent, like Trump has had on multiple occasions. He doesn't care, and makes jokes about "grabbing them by the pussy."
Biden says he doesn't remember the incident, which I can easily believe. He says that he's sorry about causing discomfort to the person reporting it. It didn't come up at the time, or he would have apologized then, I'm sure.
My attitude about this sort of thing, retrospectively reported is: He apologized.