One would assume that President Joe Biden, who has a history of awkwardly close relationships with children, would make sure that he is never caught on camera entering the Oval Office with a youngster holding each of his hands.
But this is Joe Biden, and he seems to be barely cognizant, much less aware of how it appears to others. Therefore, it’s possible that you’ve seen yet another video clip of the president interacting with two children, which has been circulating on social media over the past several days:
WARNING: The following tweets should be considered objectionable to some readers due to their use of graphic language.
A girl asks Biden about his most recent trip to Poland at the start of the video. Why don’t you come over to the Oval Office and ask me? Biden asks, not appearing to grasp what she’s saying.
Then it appears as though a boy from behind the camera wants to join as well as someone asks on his behalf. They do, and the trio is seen entering the Oval Office.“All of the idiots that ignore and/or downplay these things are enabling this behavior. Parents, for the love of God… please keep your young children away from the Big Guy,” a user named “Gain of Fauci” said in a Friday tweet. Another user called it “serious and disturbing.”
Is it? Let’s establish some context first, though. A little research revealed that this clip isn’t particularly recent. It actually dates back to April, specifically from the White House’s Take Your Child to Work Day celebration, when almost everyone at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue had an excuse to be near kids.
Marek Wakuski, a White House correspondent for Polish Radio, shared the video in its original form. He didn’t seem to draw any unfavorable conclusions from Biden’s interaction with the kids:
Translating this post written in Polish into English, the Twitter user said, “After a surprising invitation to the Oval Office by @POTUS Nina is delighted. Biden not only showed photos of his family and talked about his work, but even allowed him to sit at the president’s desk and offered cookies.”
Although it’s not obvious who was with the kids in the Oval Office or who asked for the boy’s entry, it’s important to note that Wakuski also has a daughter who goes by the name Nina. It’s not known who shot the video or if they were aware of the, ahem, subtext some viewers might interpret it as having.
However, the video is representative of Biden’s larger pattern, which is why we are even discussing the unpleasant subtext in the first place. One of the first scandals his 2020 presidential campaign had to deal with was an accusation from a Democratic official that he had gravely violated her personal space during an event in Nevada while he was vice president. Then-candidate issued a non-apology apology in response to that claim and other unpleasant photos that had accumulated over the years, promising to be more considerate of other people’s privacy and move with the times:
“You know, social norms have begun to change,” Biden said in the video. “They’ve shifted, and the boundaries of protecting personal space have been reset, and I get it. I get it. I hear what they’re saying. I understand it, and I’ll be more mindful.”
Based on his presidency’s documented social media activity, that appears to be false.
Indeed, on Take Your Child to Work Day, this wasn’t even the first incident that raised some red flags. See another video when he responds to a child’s query by saying, “Yes, baby?”
“What’s it like in the White House?” the girl asked. Biden’s reply? “Well, what’s it like in the White House? Well, here. Come here. You hang with me for a minute and I — You don’t want to go into the White House? OK, all right. OK.”
Does this meet that standard? No, because it’s far less evident what was happening here. We can assume that this girl’s father works as a White House correspondent for a significant European media outlet. In the Oval Office, were they joined by him or the girl’s mother? Was he the one who recorded the audio? All of that background information is absent, and since Wakuski works for a state broadcaster in Europe, it’s not obvious if he would have even been aware of how this may appear to someone more familiar with the president’s background.
What we can say is that Joe Biden still doesn’t get it, four years after the first concrete claims that he had harassed a woman in an uncomfortable manner and more than ten years after users of social media started noticing awkward moments involving the current president. Either he is too far gone to recognize his unsettling eccentricities or he is too cocky to care about disrespecting the privacy of women and children. Regardless of which one it is, it still doesn’t speak well of a man who is running for re-election as the world’s most powerful leader.
Joe thought the kids could use a good shower.