Matt Stevens and Sydney Ember

In an essay published Friday by New York Magazine’s The Cut, the former assemblywoman, Lucy Flores, a Democrat, said she was 35 at the time of her encounter with Biden, who was then vice president. Biden, she wrote, had agreed to come to a rally to help her fledgling campaign for lieutenant governor of Nevada.

Flores wrote that at first, she had been “grateful and flattered.” But as she was preparing to take the stage, she said, she “felt two hands on my shoulders” and “froze.”

“Why is the vice president of the United States touching me?” she recalled wondering.

“I felt him get closer to me from behind,” she continued. “He leaned further in and inhaled my hair. I was mortified.”

Then, she added: “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.”

Reached by phone on Saturday, Flores, who was attending Beto O’Rourke’s kickoff campaign rally in El Paso, Texas, said she expected Biden, and some of the public, to minimize the interaction. (Flores has said she has not yet endorsed any candidate for president and has argued that even if and when she does, her endorsement would not “erase” Biden’s “inappropriate behavior.”)

“We don’t have a system in any way, shape or form right now in politics where women and victims can speak out and can have their voices heard and can bring some accountability to people who are misbehaving and people who have done bad things,” she said.

She also said she wanted to clarify that the interaction with Biden she described was not out in the open, a point she said might have been initially misunderstood.

Her allegations come as Biden is poised to announce whether he will join the 2020 Democratic primary field and seek the White House; at public appearances and through aides Biden has signaled he is likely to enter the race.

In a statement, Bill Russo, a spokesman for Biden, said the former vice president did not recall what Flores described. Russo said Biden had been “pleased to support Lucy Flores’ candidacy for lieutenant governor of Nevada in 2014 and to speak on her behalf at a well-attended public event.”

“Neither then, nor in the years since, did he or the staff with him at the time have an inkling that Ms. Flores had been at any time uncomfortable, nor do they recall what she describes,” the statement said. “But Vice President Biden believes that Ms. Flores has every right to share her own recollection and reflections, and that it is a change for better in our society that she has the opportunity to do so. He respects Ms. Flores as a strong and independent voice in our politics and wishes her only the best.”

Addressing Biden’s statement, Flores said: “My reaction to his response is he definitely could have done a lot more to acknowledge how his behavior might have made me and the other women he has done that to feel.”

After her piece was published Friday, she said, she had been “prepared for the worst.” But she said she has been surprised by the amount of positive feedback and support she has received.

Indeed, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts — one of Biden’s competitors for the Democratic nomination should he enter the race — offered supportive words for Flores during a campaign swing in Iowa on Saturday. Asked about Flores’ essay, Warren told reporters that she had read it and called on Biden to respond directly to it.

“I believe Lucy Flores, and Joe Biden needs to give an answer,” she said. Pressed on whether Biden should opt against running in the primary, Warren said it was for him to decide.

Biden has long been criticized for his handling of the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas in 1991, when he led a panel of white men in aggressively questioning Anita Hill, who is African-American. On Tuesday, he expressed regret for his role in the hearing, saying “to this day, I regret I couldn’t give her the kind of hearing she deserved.”

As Flores noted in her essay, Biden has faced scrutiny over the years for pictures and videos that have shown him standing close to women and sometimes touching them on the shoulders, whispering in their ears and even giving kisses.

In her essay, Flores said that as those pictures surfaced, her anger and resentment grew. She said that in 2014, 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,” she wrote. “Instead, he made me feel uneasy, gross, and confused. 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 also wrote that she had carefully considered whether to speak out, but said that “hearing Biden’s potential candidacy for president discussed without much talk about his troubling past as it relates to women became too much to keep bottled up any longer.”

Flores has embraced the role of social justice advocate, speaking out about sexism and harassment in politics in recent years. She gave support to Masha Mendieta, a woman on Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign who said she was mistreated. And in a 2017 interview with Nevada Public Radio, she said it was “wonderful” that “we are having this conversation about what is the difference between sexism, what is the difference between sexual harassment, what’s the difference between sexual assault.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/30/us/politics/joe-biden-lucy-flores.html" id="9584e207-6eca-315a-ad92-0df9ef4caaa4">The New York Times</a>.

A former Nevada state assemblywoman has accused Joe Biden of touching and kissing her at a 2014 campaign event for Democrats in what she called a mortifying episode that left her feeling “powerless to do anything about it.'’

Nevada Lawmaker Says Biden Kissed Her in 2014

With Biden expected to announce whether he will enter the race for president in April, Flores’ story attracted scrutiny on his interactions with women over his long career in national politics. On Sunday, Biden released a statement defending himself, saying he did not believe he had ever acted inappropriately on the campaign trail.

Several candidates for the Democratic nomination were asked over the weekend to weigh in on the accusations, and Flores herself discussed her essay, and the response to it, in an interview with The New York Times on Saturday and on CNN Sunday morning.

Here’s a look at Flores, her career in politics, and her more recent efforts to speak out on social justice issues, sexism and harassment.

Early Political Success

In 2009 — her last year in law school — Flores, a Democrat, won an election to represent Nevada’s Assembly District 28, in the same part of Las Vegas where she had grown up, becoming one of the first Latinas elected to the state Legislature.

She served two terms in the Assembly, during which she said she focused on issues like education, consumer protection and aid for victims of domestic violence.

At one point in 2013, she gave testimony at a committee meeting on sexual education about having had an abortion when she was 16, and subsequently received threats, according to local news reports.

Felicia Ortiz, a friend of Flores who is on the state Board of Education in Nevada, said she let Flores stay with her after someone shot a bullet into Flores’ house.

“Her strength is phenomenal,” Ortiz said.

Failed Runs for Higher Office

Flores ran as the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in 2014, which was when she met Biden. The vice president, she wrote in the essay, had agreed to come to a rally to help her fledgling campaign.

At first, she wrote, she felt “grateful and flattered.” But as she was preparing to take the stage, she “felt two hands on my shoulders” and “froze.” Then, she said, Biden leaned in and “inhaled my hair,” and “proceeded to plant a big slow kiss on the back of my head.”

Flores lost the election in a landslide. Prominent Nevada political analyst Jon Ralston tweeted Saturday that her loss caused her to fall out of favor with the state’s Democratic establishment and with Harry Reid, the powerful former senator.

She ran for Congress in 2016 in a bid to represent Nevada’s 4th District, but lost in a tight primary to Ruben Kihuen — Reid’s choice — in what she called “a high-profile, full-of-controversy race.”

“I think there have been issues because she has challenged the norm,” said Chris Miller, former chairman of the Clark County Democratic Party in Nevada.

In a Facebook post in early 2016, Flores endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders for president and became a campaign surrogate. She also served on the board of Our Revolution, the Sanders-aligned advocacy group.

“I believe that Bernie Sanders will lead the charge, with many millions of Americans behind him, against the unfettered Wall Street greed that has threatened the very existence of the middle class and shackled so many more to permanent poverty,” she wrote in the Facebook post. “I believe that now, more than ever, America needs a political revolution.”

Life After Politics

After her primary loss in 2016, Flores moved to California, where she worked at Mitú, a digital media company, and then helped found a company, Luz Collective, focused on empowering Latinas.

Flores has also embraced the role of social justice advocate, speaking out about sexism and harassment in politics in recent years. She gave support to Masha Mendieta, a woman on Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign who said she was mistreated.

And in a 2017 interview with Nevada Public Radio, she said it was “wonderful” that “we are having this conversation about what is the difference between sexism, what is the difference between sexual harassment, what’s the difference between sexual assault.”

This article originally appeared in <a id="7bbee761-c4a5-4894-bfa2-b27207a81c8d" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/31/us/politics/lucy-flores-biden-accuser.html">The New York Times</a>.

Who is Lucy Flores, the woman accusing Joe Biden of kissing her?

Lucy Flores, a former Nevada state assemblywoman, published an essay Friday in which she described Joe Biden touching her inappropriately and kissing her on the head during a Democratic campaign rally in 2014, when he was vice president.

In his statement, he emphasized that “not once — never — did I believe I acted inappropriately” but pledged to listen to any accuser. He did not describe in detail the “expressions of affection,” but said there were also “countless handshakes, hugs” and attempts to “support and comfort” people he met.

“I may not recall these moments the same way, and I may be surprised at what I hear,” Biden said. “But we have arrived at an important time when women feel they can and should relate their experiences, and men should pay attention. And I will.”

Biden, who is expected to announce in April whether he will join the 2020 Democratic primary field, issued his statement two days after an essay by Flores was published on Friday in New York Magazine’s The Cut. Flores, a Democrat, said she was 35 at the time of her encounter with Biden, who was then vice president.

Biden, she wrote, had come to a rally to help her fledgling campaign for lieutenant governor of Nevada and had come up behind her, touched her and planted “a big slow kiss” on the back of her head.

Flores, responding on Sunday morning to Biden’s statement, said she was glad the former vice president was willing to listen and clarify his intentions. But she said she found it hard to believe that Biden could not have been aware of how he made her and other women feel, saying there was “a little bit of a disconnect.”

“It is completely inappropriate ” Flores said on CNN about Biden’s behavior with women. “And this is something that we should consider when we’re talking about the background of a person who is considering running for president.”

“For me it’s disqualifying,” she added. “I think it’s up to everybody else to make that decision.”

The allegations by Flores, and a statement on Saturday from a Biden spokesman and the new one on Sunday from Biden himself, represent a high-profile convergence of politics and the evolving societal norms of behavior and accountability in the #MeToo era, playing out against the backdrop of a presidential primary in which Biden — though not yet declared — is leading in several early polls.

Democratic presidential candidates weighed in on Sunday morning, indicating that they believed Flores’ allegations but remaining circumspect about the potential political fallout for Biden.

“I have no reason not to believe Lucy,” Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” Asked if allegations should disqualify Biden from running for president, Sanders said: “I think that’s a decision for the vice president to make. I’m not sure that one incident alone disqualifies anybody.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., stepped delicately around questions about Biden during an interview on the ABC program “This Week.”

“We know from campaigns and from politics that people raise issues and they have to address them, and that’s what he will have to do with the voters if he gets into the race,” Klobuchar said, while adding that she has “no reason not to believe” Flores.

Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, said on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” “Certainly one allegation is not disqualifying, but it should be taken seriously.”

Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser to President Donald Trump, said on “Fox News Sunday,” “I think Joe Biden has a big problem because he calls it affection and handshakes. His party calls it completely inappropriate.”

Political pressure began to mount on Biden on Saturday as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who is also a 2020 candidate, said in Iowa that she believed Flores and called on the former vice president to respond to the allegations. It was a rare instance, this early in the Democratic primary race, of one candidate calling out a potential rival to account for personal behavior.

Julián Castro, another candidate for the Democratic nomination, was also in Iowa on Saturday and, like Warren, said he believed Flores. As for whether Biden’s behavior should disqualify him from the race, Castro said: “He’s going to decide whether he’s going to run or not, and then the American people, if he does, will decide whether they support him or not.”

In a telephone interview on Saturday, Flores, who was attending Beto O’Rourke’s kickoff campaign rally in El Paso, Texas, said she expected Biden, and some of the public, to minimize the interaction. (Flores has said she has not yet endorsed any candidate for president and has argued that even if and when she does, her endorsement would not “erase” Biden’s “inappropriate behavior.”)

Flores also said she wanted to clarify that the interaction with Biden she described was not out in the open, a point she said might have been initially misunderstood.

“It was private because we were on the side of the stage behind curtains where the audience cannot see, behind the stage,’’ she said. “There wasn’t a ton of people around.”

If staff members were present, she added, they were likely running around.

On Saturday night, Henry R. Munoz III, the organizer of the 2014 rally and co-founder of the Latino Victory Project, issued a statement saying there did not appear to be any evidence that Flores and Biden were ever alone together at the event. Munoz said the two waited in different holding rooms, then were briefly together offstage “surrounded by security, medical and production staff.’’

Munoz said he had reviewed photographic documentation and talked to staff members and attendees, and had concluded that he and his organization “do not believe that circumstances support allegations that such an event took place.”

In her CNN interview on Sunday, Flores called Munoz’s statement “entirely irrelevant” because its premise was that she and Biden were never alone, a claim Flores said she never made.

After her piece published Friday, she said she had been “prepared for the worst.” But she said she has been surprised by the amount of positive feedback and support she has received.

Biden has long been criticized for his handling of the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas in 1991, when he led a panel of white men in aggressively questioning Anita Hill, who is African-American. On Tuesday, he expressed regret for his role in the hearing, saying, “To this day, I regret I couldn’t give her the kind of hearing she deserved.”

As Flores noted in her essay, Biden has also faced scrutiny over the years for pictures and videos that have shown him standing close to women and sometimes touching them on the shoulders, whispering in their ears and even giving kisses.

“He was there to promote me as the right person for the lieutenant governor job,” she wrote. “Instead, he made me feel uneasy, gross, and confused. 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.”

Flores has embraced the role of social justice advocate, speaking out about sexism and harassment in politics in recent years. She gave support to Masha Mendieta, a woman on Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign who said she was mistreated. And in a 2017 interview with Nevada Public Radio, she said it was “wonderful” that “we are having this conversation about what is the difference between sexism, what is the difference between sexual harassment, what’s the difference between sexual assault.”

Biden says he did not act inappropriately with Lucy Flores

Former Vice President Joe Biden, under pressure to respond to allegations that he touched and kissed a former Nevada assemblywoman, Lucy Flores, went on the defensive Sunday morning with a sweeping statement saying he did not believe he acted inappropriately but acknowledging that he had made “expressions of affection” during his years on the campaign trail.

Reached by phone on Saturday, Flores, who was attending Beto O’Rourke’s kickoff campaign rally in El Paso, Texas, said she expected Biden, and some of the public, to minimize the interaction.

She also said she wanted to clarify that the interaction she described in her piece was not out in the open, a point she said might have been initially misunderstood.

Flores has embraced the role of social justice advocate, speaking out about sexism and harassment in politics in recent years. She gave support to Masha Mendieta, a woman on Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign who said she was mistreated.

Nevada lawmaker says Biden kissed her in 2014

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Matt Stevens and Sydney Ember

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Nevada Lawmaker Says Biden Kissed Her in 2014

Who is Lucy Flores, the woman accusing Joe Biden of kissing her?

Biden says he did not act inappropriately with Lucy Flores

Nevada lawmaker says Biden kissed her in 2014