When your reputation is as toxic as Joe Biden’s, even the most innocent-looking of interactions can appear off-putting, or even downright creepy.
Case in point: On Tuesday, good ol’ Sleepy Joe was making a speech at another stop on his increasingly ill-fated campaign tour, this time in Phoenix, Arizona.
As seen in this video shared by the New York Post, Biden was standing on stage during an event at a local Mexican restaurant, listening while campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez introduced him to the crowd.
Rodriguez was telling the crowd, “We have made so much progress together, but we know that there is still work to be done.”
Biden, meanwhile, smiled at something or someone offstage, seemingly oblivious to her remarks.
As Rodriguez continued, getting a full minute into her remarks, Biden then unexpectedly wandered off the stage.
The Post then filled in what happened next: Biden had spotted a mother with a baby sitting in the crowd.
Ignoring the potential impropriety of ditching your campaign manager when she’s trying to set the good folks up for your speech, Biden proceeded to shuffle over to the infant, apparently forgetting why he was there.
Is Joe Biden’s image too damaged to ever repair?
As Rodriguez told the crowd, “We know that the president’s vision, values, his commitment to faith, family, and hard work, are what’s going to continue to propel the Latino vote this election cycle,” Biden sat down with the mother and baby, making faces at the child and chatting with the mother during the rest of Rodriguez’s remarks.
Upon remounting the stage, according to Fox News, Biden informed the bewildered crowd, “Well, folks, I have to tell you straight up, I like you all, but I couldn’t resist that little baby.”
Now, if this were any other presidential candidate (save, perhaps, Bill Clinton), this interaction would be seen as sweet — charming, even — showing a very human side to an often remote figure.
However, this is Joe Biden.
Not only is Biden clearly suffering from some sort of dementia — which makes this instance of him leaving his post randomly in public seem more concerning — but his behavior around children, especially young girls, is not what anyone would call charming.
In fact, it’s downright creepy.
For instance, the Post, in their story, linked to an infamous incident wherein Biden, during his trip to Europe last year, approached a mother and daughter at the Helskini-Vantaan International Airport, nibbling the child’s shoulder and appearing to sniff her hair.
For another, Biden is 81 years old.
At that age, you need to be hyper-aware of appearances when it comes to interactions with children and infants.
And Biden decidedly is not.
He has a long history of inappropriately smelling little girls’ hair (on camera, no less), touching women in creepy and uncomfortable ways and making strange comments about how “mature” certain underage girls look.
If this were anyone else, there likely wouldn’t be any questions of dementia or possible hair sniffing.
Biden has a terrible image problem, and it’s so inextricably linked to who he is that he can’t shake it off as long as he acts like himself.
And what we saw in Phoenix was Biden, unfortunately, being himself.
