Page 4 - Florida Sentinel 4-2-19

Page Four
Joe Biden Denied Acting Inappropriately After A Democratic
Politician Said He Kissed Her Head
Stop in the name of deal- ing with President Donald Trump mess for eight years. On Friday, a former Demo- cratic nominee for Nevada lieutenant governor, Lucy Flores, penned a first-person essay describing an incident in 2014 when then-Vice Pres- ident Joe Biden touched and kissed her from behind in a way that made her uncom- fortable. On Sunday morning, Biden released a statement defending his actions, saying he did not believe he acted in- appropriately. "It was never my intention," Biden said.
Flores was a 35-year-old on the campaign trail in Ne- vada when Biden offered to come to one of her rallies to help boost voter turnout.
Lucy Flores and Vice President Joe Biden during a November 2014 event in Las Vegas, Nevada.
While waiting on the side of the stage, Flores said that the vice president came up to
her from behind, put his hands on her shoulders, leaned in close to smell her hair, and then kissed the back of her head.
"I couldn’t move and I couldn’t say anything," Flo- res, a former Nevada assem- blywoman, wrote in New York Magazine's The Cut. "I wanted nothing more than to get Biden away from me."
Flores said the incident made her feel powerless. "He stopped treating me like a peer the moment he touched me," she wrote. "Even if his behavior wasn’t violent or sexual, it was demeaning and disrespectful."
On Friday, Biden's spokesperson, Bill Russo, said that "Neither then, nor in the years since, did [Biden] 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."
Biden's statement on Sunday did not directly ad- dress Flores's claims, but denied that he ever intended to make anyone uncomfort- able. "In my many years on the campaign trail and in public life, I have offered countless handshakes, hugs, expressions of affection, sup- port and comfort. And not once - never - did I believe I acted inappropriately," Biden said.
"I may not recall these moments the same way, and I may be surprised at what I hear. But we have arrived at an important time when women feel they can and should relate their experi- ences, and men should pay at- tention. And I will," he said.
Florida Mayor Wayne Messam Officially Enters 2020 Presidential Race
MAYOR WAYNE MESSAM
Miramar, Florida Mayor Wayne Messam is the latest Democrat to join the 2020 Presidential race, making it of- ficial in a video released on Thursday morning.
Messam, who boasts little recognition outside of Florida, has some steep hills to climb in this particularly candidacy but the gauntlet has been tossed. And, like many Democrats, Messam has focused on the notion of repairing the Ameri-
can Dream for all.
“I’m passionate about the
American Dream because it’s not a fictitious thing for me,” Messam says in the an- nouncement video. “It’s real for me.”
To highlight his point, he references his parents, immi- grants from Jamaica, who left their home country with just a 5th-grade education in search of a better life for the family.
Messam also alluded to other hot topic issues, such as climate change and the cost of prescription drugs within his messaging.
“The problem in America as I see it is that we are not ad- dressing these high-stakes problems that we must deal with today,” he said. “When you have a senior citizen who can’t afford her prescription medicine, Washington is bro- ken. When our scientists are telling us if we don’t make drastic changes today, the quality of our air will be in peril, Washington is broken.”
Recommendations For The City Of Tampa Municipal Election Runoff April 23rd
Mayor
David Straz
City Council District 1
Walter Smith, II
City Council District 3
John Dingfelder
City Council District 5
Jeffrey Rhodes
TUESDAY, APRIL 23RD.
PAGE 4 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 2019