Waterloo Iowa Biden Hands on Again
FORT MADISON, Iowa ― Carol Foss said she hadn't made up her listen which Democrat she liked best when she arrived at a Joe Biden campaign event here on Friday.
Biden made a strong impression, both during his spoken communication and after.
"He gave me a kiss on the cheek and I'll never wash that cheek over again," Foss said, adding with a laugh that the moment made her experience "really dainty and warm and fuzzy."
Biden's penchant for physically touching people in close encounters has been controversial. Sometime Nevada state Assemblywoman Lucy Flores, for instance, wrote last yr the quondam vice president made her feel "uneasy, gross, and confused" when he rubbed her shoulders and kissed her head in 2014.
In a video response, Biden tried to explain that in his long political career, he has e'er shaken hands and touched people, just he acknowledged that "social norms are changing" and he would be more mindful of people'south space.
Biden'south entrada events, however, are designed for touching. At small gatherings in Ottumwa, Fort Madison and Mount Pleasant over the past ii days, Biden has given a 30-minute stump oral communication followed past at least equally many minutes of hands-on greeting time. Attendees, who tend to be older, line upward for handshakes, hugs, selfies, kisses and the occasional poke in the chest.
And they seem to love it. Iii people who said they were previously undecided told HuffPost they became Biden supporters. 1 woman wept as Biden used her phone to talk to her ambulatory son dorsum habitation.
Following his oral communication in Fort Madison, Foss, an 84-year-sometime former travel amanuensis, said she told Biden that she would pray for him. He responded by clasping her hands and showing her how he prays on his fingers. Then he kissed her on the cheek.
Afterward, Foss said she'd support Biden on Monday in the Iowa caucuses, the crucial starting time issue of the up-for-grabs Democratic presidential nomination. She appreciates his experience in the White House and on the globe stage.
"He's just a very downward-to-world man and he's had some problems in his ain life, so he has a lot of empathy for people," Foss said. (She denied that the osculation itself sealed the deal.)
Justin Sullivan via Getty Images
Biden'south empathy is a trait his campaign emphasizes, drawing a sharp contrast with President Donald Trump, who revels in cruelty. The candidate and his surrogates talk about the personal loss Biden suffered every bit a senator, when his wife and daughter died in a motorcar accident, and as vice president, when one of his sons died of brain cancer.
"It's important for the president to accept suffered," Christie Vilsack, the quondam beginning lady of Iowa, said Friday evening at a Biden issue in Mount Pleasant. Part of the president's job, she said, is to assistance the nation cope with tragedy.
Biden's personal touch also contrasts with the style of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), his top rival at the moment, who tends to exit events quickly without hugging tons of people.
After his spoken communication at an American Legion mail service in Ottumwa on Thursday, Biden met Melinda Jones, a 36-year-old schoolteacher who came to the event undecided, and her 7-year-old daughter. Jones had previously supported Cory Booker, who dropped out of the race terminal calendar month.
Biden bent downward and asked Jones' girl how she was doing and said it was groovy to see her. He asked her name and age, and so Jones told Biden that she'd previously supported Booker, but that she at present would likely go for Biden. He thanked her before they hugged and took pictures.
"When yous speak to him, he is actually looking at you and engaged with your conversation," Jones said.
In Mount Pleasant on Fri, Seth Dickson, a 26-year-one-time Trump supporter from Galesburg, Illinois, infiltrated Biden's greeting line. He asked Biden why as vice president he'd pushed Ukraine to burn down a prosecutor, an human activity that Republicans accept falsely said Biden did to do good himself.
Biden poked Dickson in the chest, saying "the guy was a cheat" as entrada staff asked Dickson to leave, which he did, smiling. The incident escaped the find of reporters, probable because the campaign plays loud music during encounter-and-greet time, making it difficult to hear Biden's conversations.
In other words, it looked like Biden was just poking some other guy in the chest.
"Information technology's whatsoever," Dickson said of the poke. "This guy has no clue what he's doing."
Carlos Barria / Reuters
In Fort Madison, Ann Cahoon, 62, said she has long appreciated the style Biden tells the story of losing his son, and she said it'due south given her forcefulness. Her 37-twelvemonth-one-time son also had brain cancer.
She talked to Biden after his speech communication and told him that a December surgery to remove her son's cancer had been successful. Biden wanted to talk to him, only he wasn't there.
"He said, 'Call him on the phone,'" Cahoon said. Biden then talked to her son for more than a minute while Cahoon looked on, her eyes red with tears.
"It kind of makes you feel like you matter," she said.
Source: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/biden-iowa-touching_n_5e35a7eec5b6f262332a4830
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