Joe Biden, king of gaffes

Vice president’s continuous blunders may knock him off 2016 candidate list

Vice President Joe Biden has provided no shortage of public relations nightmares for President Barack Obama’s White House.

weird — Joe Biden at the swearing-in of Sec. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall in 2014.  Google Images

Weird — Joe Biden at the swearing-in of Sec. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall in 2014. Google Images

With the rest of Washington, D.C., making it through their snow day last week, Biden was definitely not missing any action. A picture and video were taken during the swearing in of new Defense Secretary Ashton Carter that show Biden whispering in his wife’s ear and resting his hands on her shoulders in an extremely discomforting — and creepy — manner.

Reporters at The Washington Post seem to think Stephanie Carter, the wife of Ashton Carter, looked more annoyed than happy about the encounter. Especially considering all of this awkward mess was being photographed and streamed live with millions watching.

Her expression was “piercing: Furious but frozen, it is the expression of anyone being touched or groped who really, truly doesn’t want to be,” according to Tim
Teeman from the Daily Beast.

Even though most news outlets are claiming this is just another one of his hilarious “gaffes,” this photo seems a bit more telling.

She genuinely looks disturbed in the photo. I cannot think of anyone who would not be disturbed with a creepy old man, who just happens to also be the vice president, coming up behind them whispering in their ear and grabbing their shoulders.

Sure, Biden has had his hilarious moments, especially on the campaign trail, and has provided us more than a few laughs, but this is where hilarity crosses the line. His most recent actions were uncalled for and extremely distasteful.

Biden — in a failed PR stunt to rectify the situation — even joked about the photo that was taken at the press conference, saying, “I will be available for photos in this room if you want one, but I don’t blame you if you don’t,” getting laughs from the press in the room, according to Politico.

This man is the vice president of the United States, not a comedian. It is not his job to crack jokes and make America laugh. His job is to help run the country and defend the Constitution to the best of his ability.

So do us all a favor, Biden.

Forget about 2016.

Biden needs to be called out by Obama to issue a formal apology to the secretary and his wife and to America for acting in an unprofessional manner.
At any major television station, you are expected to act a certain way on camera when viewers are watching, and the same standard, if not a higher one, should be expected of our president and vice president.

The fact is that this will go unpunished because Obama is completing his term as a lame-duck president where moments like this do not affect his White House as much as it would have in the past.

But rest assured, America, if Biden does run for office, there will be plenty more awkward photos in our future.

OZBURN is an opinion writer.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *