It’s one of the first lessons many people learn, but it appears the front-runner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nominationis still struggling with the concept of asking before you touch someone.
This is the impression preschool teacher Jessica Roman had after meeting former Vice President Joe Biden earlier this week at a Labor Day event in Iowa.
When she asked about how Biden would help her fellow union members following a change in the law regarding collective bargaining rights, he quickly grabbed her hands before giving his answer.
Footage posted by the Washington Examiner caught the encounter:
“I think that he means well but, you know, he grabbed my hands right away and that was really uncomfortable,” Roman told the Examiner.
“He was very close and, in my mind, I’m like, this is part of our problem: Not recognizing that you need to ask first, or can I shake your hand? Not just grab your hands and hang onto them.”
Biden is currently leading his fellow Democrats by double digits, according to many nationwide polls.
Of course, this could very well change if he’s unable to stop with the unwanted touching.
This isn’t the first time Biden has left women feeling uncomfortable, either.
His habit of touching and rubbing the shoulders of women even earned him the nickname “Creepy Joe” from President Donald Trump.
Biden has both laughed off the allegations of unwanted touching and also vowed never to act like that again.
This most recent incident shows he may not be willing or able to keep his promise, something that could come back to haunt him as crucial primary and caucus dates draw near.
Roman remains unconvinced that Biden would make a good president who represents America well.
“I wouldn’t say it’s something that I didn’t like but, you know, I’m in my 40s, I’m raising a teenager, I work with very young families, and he’s not relevant,” Roman said.
“It’s been too long since he’s raised a family, too long since he’s lived on a normal paycheck. I want somebody that actually gets it, that understands what it is to live on the paychecks that we live on, the housing crisis that we have, all of the ways that those things affect us.”
Right now, Roman said she probably plans to back either Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren or California Sen. Kamala Harris.
Harris and Warren, neither of whom have held back in attacking Biden, remain some of his fiercest competitors.
With the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries scheduled to begin in February, Biden doesn’t have much time to improve his image
His unwanted touching, coupled with gaffe after painful gaffe, could spell trouble for his Oval Office aspirations.