“Joe Biden may swear off all physical contact by the time the week is over,” Joy Behar predicted on Thursday’s edition of The View before revealing that three more women have now come forward to say his public displays of affection made them uncomfortable.
In general, the hosts remained as defensive of Biden’s conduct as they did earlier this week, with only Sunny Hostin willing to acknowledge the “power dynamic” that would make it hard for a woman to tell the vice president of the United States to stop touching her in the moment.
Others offered a less nuanced take.
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“I’ve got to tell you I am so done done done done done done done with this issue,” Ana Navarro said. “We’ve been talking about this hyper-inflated, overblown issue now for over a week. Some in the media have given him the treatment like he was a sexual harasser. He is not. He now says he gets it. You know who else has to get it? Women have to get it.”
But that was nothing compared to Meghan McCain’s defense of Biden, who famously comforted her on live television after her father’s cancer diagnosis.
“This has been really difficult for me to watch,” McCain said. “I think this is so unfair because no woman has come out and said he has sexually assaulted me. And my understanding about the #MeToo movement was it was about sexual assault.”
“Now, maybe the goal post has been moved, maybe I have a misunderstanding about what the #MeToo movement is,” she continued, referring to a movement that has always been about a spectrum of unacceptable behavior. “All I can tell you about Joe Biden—and I know him, as I think most people at this table do—he’s a man of true character, he is someone could beat President Trump, he loves his wife Jill, he loves his family.”
As someone who has been through “insurmountable tragedy” in his life, Biden was praised by McCain for refusing to become “angry and closed-off” and instead deciding to “empathize with people and to touch them and to hug them.” She said, “I’ll take that any day over the opposite.”
Finally, McCain pointed to one accuser who suggested Biden step aside so a woman can run for president as evidence that the allegations are politically motivated. “If you don’t think he is progressive enough to be the candidate right now, come out and say that, and say we want a woman instead, but don't attack his family and character in the meantime.”
“I’m telling you his kids are feeling this,” McCain concluded. “I can just imagine going through this. It’s a hatchet job and I think it’s unfair.”
