ZCZC
BFF-14
US-POLITICS-TRUMP-BIDEN-OFFBEAT
Trump tweet trolls Biden’s apology on touching
WASHINGTON, April 5, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – US President Donald Trump on Thursday
deployed his trademark blend of crude humor and Twitter to mock potential
election rival Joe Biden’s apology for having touched women without
permission.
Biden, an undeclared frontrunner for the Democratic nomination to take on
Trump in 2020, had earlier tweeted a short video in which he promised to
respect “personal space” more in the future.
Trump responded by posting a doctored version of the video in which a fake
image of Biden creeps up behind the actual Biden and puts his hands on his
shoulders.
“WELCOME BACK JOE!” Trump writes above the video.
The joking tweet is in keeping with Trump’s long history of mocking
opponents with sexual innuendo, schoolyard-style nicknames, and torrents of
tweets.
If Trump’s stunt was meant to bait Biden into a back-and-forth, it
succeeded.
“I see that you are on the job and presidential, as always,” Biden clapped
back at Trump on Twitter.
In September 2017, eight months into his term, Trump retweeted a video
splicing footage of him hitting a golf ball and former 2016 presidential
opponent Hillary Clinton falling over, so that it seemed she had been knocked
down by his ball.
Biden, 76, defended himself over instances where he kissed women on the
head or put hands on them, suggesting he was merely affectionate and politics
is about “making connections.”
But in the video he said he would be “more mindful about respecting
personal space in the future.”
Biden has not declared officially but polls show the former vice president
under Barack Obama and longtime senator would be a formidable challenger to
Trump.
Trump faces a litany of far more serious allegations about his behavior
around women, including multiple affairs, and claims of rape, groping and
harassment that he has dismissed.
Just before the 2016 election a decade-old recording was released in which
Trump could be heard boasting about “grabbing” women’s genitals.
Trump said that he was “not proud” of his words but that they were just
“locker room talk.”
Biden’s retort suggests that, should the Delaware Democrat enter the
presidential fray, he just might be prepared to get into the mud with The
Donald.
Had he been in school when he heard Trump’s misogynist comments, “I’d…
beat the hell out of him,” Biden told Florida students last year.
BSS/AFP/GMR/0849 hrs