Jill Biden warns her husband he has to be 'a better judge' around people after string of 'Creepy Joe' accusations and tells Robin Roberts she has been a Me Too victim but never named the men
Jill Biden warned her husband Joe Biden on Tuesday that, going forward, he would have to be 'a better judge' when people approached him after a series of women accused the former vice president of making them feel uncomfortable with his inappropriate touching.
'Going forward, I think he's going to have to judge, be a better judge of when people approach him, how he's going to react, that he maybe shouldn't approach them,' she said on ABC's 'Good Morning America.'
Her warning comes as Joe Biden deals with countering his political glad-handling personality with the realities of the #Metoo movement.
Jill Biden revealed she has felt uncomfortable in some situations with men
The Bidens appeared on ABC's 'Good Morning America' as Joe Biden formally launches his presidential campaign
Jill Biden defended her husband's hugging and kissing women on the head, saying people come to him for comfort.
'I think what you don't realize is how many people approach Joe. Men and women looking for comfort or empathy,' she explained.
She also revealed she, too, has had a #MeToo moment and has felt uncomfortable in some situations with men.
'Yes, it's happened to me. And I have come home and I've told Joe about it,' she said.
'She'd never tell me the names, though,' Joe Biden interjected.
She said she handled the situations by stepping aside.
'I just sort of stepped aside. I didn't address it. Like you said, I mean, things have changed. There was a time when women were afraid to speak out and I can remember specifically it was in a job interview and - and, you know, and so that's where we've moved from now if that same thing happened today I'd turn around and say what do you think you're doing so I think it's totally different,' she said.
The Bidens appeared in a joint interview with ABC's Robin Roberts on Tuesday as Joe Biden kicked off his 2020 presidential campaign with his first rally in Pittsburgh on Monday.
Jill Biden joined her husband on stage Monday at his first campaign rally in Pittsburgh
She helped introduce him to a crowd of union supporters
Jill Biden spoke at that event and sat beside her husband throughout the interview, often stepping in to clarify his remarks or tout his presidential-level of experience as a reason voters should support him.
'If I could jump in here, the one thing I think that does differentiate you is his experience. I mean, he doesn't need any on the job training. He jumps right in. He's been vice president. So from day one, Joe can take everything,' she said when Biden was explaining why Democratic primary voters should select him as their nominee.
And asked if he was confident he could beat President Donald Trump in 2020, Biden said that was up to voters.
'Whether or not I win the nomination is going to depend on the Democrats and whether I beat Donald Trump is going to depend on the American people,' he said.
'I'm confident,' Jill Biden added.
Joe Biden also said on Tuesday that he believed Anita Hill 'from the very beginning' about her allegations against Clarence Thomas.
'I believed her from the very beginning,' Biden told ABC's 'Good Morning America.'
'She did not get treated well. That's my responsibility and I committed that I am determined to continue the fight to see to it that we basically change the culture in this country where a woman is put in a position where she is disbelieved.'
Former Vice President Joe Biden that he believed Anita Hill 'from the very beginning' about her allegations against Clarence Thomas
Biden called Anita Hill (above) before he announced his presidential bid to apologize
Biden was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991 when Hill testified that Supreme Court nominee Clarance Thomas sexually harassed her when the two worked together at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Thomas was eventually confirmed to the Supreme Court.
And Biden was heavily criticized for allowing Republican senators to grill Hill harshly about her allegations.
Biden called Hill before he announced his presidential bid to apologize.
'I was grateful she took the call. I don't want to get into our private conversation but the point is, look, I was chairman of the committee,' he told ABC.
The former vice president said he does understand what women were telling him when they accused him of making them uncomfortable.
'I really do. I've learned - here's the deal. I've always thought that part of leadership, part of politics was listening to people, hearing them, making them feel comfortable, getting them - letting them know I hear them and I empathize with them. It's my responsibility to be more sensitive to whether or not someone wants me to reassure them or wants to say hello or wants to show affection and that's my responsibility,' he said.
Joe Biden was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991 when Anita Hill testified that she felt harassed by Clarence Thomas
Biden is fighting off the charges of insensitivity as he formally launched his presidential campaign with a rally in Pittsburgh on Monday. He will spend Tuesday and Wednesday campaigning in Iowa, the first state to hold a caucus in the battle for the Democratic nomination.
And the former vice president got good news on Tuesday when a new CNN poll showed him with a commanding 24 point lead over Bernie Sanders, his closest rival.
Biden garnered 39 percent of the vote to Sanders' 15 percent. Sen. Elizabeth Warren came in third with 8 percent, followed by South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg at 7 percent.
The numbers confirm Biden's front runner status in the crowded field of 20 contenders to take on President Donald Trump in 2020.
Biden has hit Trump hard from the starting gate and Trump has slammed him right back, an indication the president is nervous that the former vice president could appeal to the same blue-collar voters that put him in the White House.
Biden on Tuesday revealed his campaign slogan.
'Make America moral again. Make America return to the essence of who we are, the dignity of the country, the dignity and treating our people with dignity and this god awful deliberate division that's being taken in order to separate people to aggrandize his own power,' he told ABC's 'Good Morning America.'
And he outlined the three factors he said will distinguish him from the crowded Democratic field.
'One, I talked a little about to restore the soul of America, the decency we represent, the honor, the integrity of this country and, secondly, I'm going to talk here today about restoring the backbone of America which is the working class, the middle class and this time we're going to bring everybody along. Thirdly, the reason I'm running we have to unite the country and that's what we're going to be talking a lot about. We can't stay fractured,' Biden said.
Pitch: Joe Biden said working-class voters were not getting their 'fair share' during a Good Morning America interview (pictured) in which he also addressed the Anita Hill row
Biden also outlined his argument to voters.
He was asked what he would tell a Trump supporter enjoying a strong economy, including record low unemployment.
Biden responded: 'What I'd say is, did you get any benefit from the tax cut?
'Have your wages really gone up like you think you deserve? Do your employers treat you with any more respect and dignity than they did before?
'What's the story? Ask these folks - they're not getting their fair share.'
Trump has hailed the 2017 tax cuts as one of his major achievements in office but critics say they favored wealthy Americans.
Rally: Joe Biden addresses union workers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania yesterday at his first campaign rally since he entered the race for the 2020 Democratic nomination
Fired up: Former Vice President Biden takes the stage in Pittsburgh on Monday, meeting a supporter with a placard: 'Fire fighters for Biden'
Biden made his Rust Belt pitch in a bid to cancel out Donald Trump's gains in the blue-collar Midwest, which propelled him to victory over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.
He held his first campaign rally Monday in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, emphasizing his working-class roots and support from labor unions.
'Quite frankly folks, if I'm going to be able to beat Donald Trump in 2020, it's going to happen here. It's going to happen here in western Pennsylvania. With your help,' he said.
Unofficial merchandising: One woman brought a Biden bag with her for the rally
On sale: Biden 2020 t-shirts and f*** Trump badges were being sold outside by a vendor
Positive reception: The crowd chanted 'We love Joe' when Biden spoke at the Pittsburgh rally
Surrounded by union workers in yellow 'fire fighters for Biden' t-shirts, he said: 'I make no apologies. I am a union man.
'Workers feel powerless and too often humiliated. I call it an abuse of power. And I can't stand it. Never have been able to.
And when I think about work, I think about dignity. I think about a lot about my dad, a proud gentleman.
'My dad had an expression. He said, Joey, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. It's about your dignity.'
'We have to choose hope over fear, unity over division, and maybe most importantly, truth over lies,' he said in one of the biggest applause lines of his remarks.
'We love Joe, We love Joe,' the union-heavy crowd at the Teamsters Local 249 banquet hall shouted back.
During the rally he called for a $15 minimum wage and demanded a repeal of Trump's tax cut.
Trump won Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin by less than one per cent each, taking him over the line in the electoral college.
Biden's supporters hope his working-class background and folksy touch could help him win those voters back.
He is pitching himself as a safe bet to take on Trump ahead of the more untested candidates running for the Democratic nomination.
The Obama-Biden ticket won all three states, as well as Ohio and Iowa, on its way to victory in the 2008 and 2012 elections.
In his campaign launch he said the 'soul of the nation' was at stake if Trump were to win re-election.
He highlighted Trump's much-criticized comment that there were 'very fine people' on both sides of the clash between white supremacists and counter-protesters in Charlottesville in August 2017.
'If we give Donald Trump eight years in the White House, he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation — who we are,' Biden said.
