Maybe it’s a good thing he was 2,000 miles away.
President Biden had an awkward, flirtatious moment on Monday during a video conference with health workers in Arizona, where he stopped to compliment a nurse on her youthful appearance – even stumbling that she looks like “ a freshman. ”
Biden came up with some of his ‘creepy’ old antics when he responded to the nurse supervisor’s detailed description of giving COVID-19 shots by asking her about her age.
“Are you a freshman in college?” Biden asked Brittney Hayes at the end of a conversation in which she outlined the process of having people injected at the State Farm Stadium vaccination site in Glendale.
‘No. No, ”said Hayes, who had described herself at the beginning of the talk as being from Arizona State University, but made it clear that she was the“ chief nurse ”at the vaccination site.
“You look like a freshman!” Biden said with a chuckle.
“Why thanks,” she said through her face mask.
But Biden wasn’t ready yet.
After Vice President Kamala Harris took turns asking questions, Biden continued to show his disbelief that Hayes was a medical professional.
“And you are a nurse?” Biden said during the video call, which was publicly streamed.
“I’m, I’m a nurse. I’m an RN. I’ve been an RN for about nine years now,” she said. Registered nurses typically have at least two years of college or bachelor’s degree.
The president replied, “I know I’ve been a major health care user, I can say it – I know the vice president knows this, when I say it – doctors let you live, nurses let you live. If there are angels in heaven, they are all nurses, men and women. And that is no exaggeration. That’s the truth of God. “
Biden, 78, is notorious for intruding into women’s personal space, sometimes while whispering advice in their ear or improvising a neck massage.
Supporters of former President Donald Trump nicknamed him “Creepy Joe” during the 2020 campaign and cheerfully spread montages of him in the process.
Biden was even forced to release a video at the start of his 2019 campaign in which he acknowledged that he was making people “uncomfortable” with his tactile gestures and pledged to be “much more aware” in the future.
Biden’s interaction with the nurse came just days after ‘Saturday Night Live’ presenter Colin Jost joked about his handsy record at the start of the ‘Weekend Update’ segment of the program.
“President Biden said Friday he will continue with his $ 1.9 trillion stimulus plan, with or without Republican backing – because this economy needs a massage and Joe Biden is not waiting for approval,” Jost said.
The president’s virtual tour had more than one awkward moment. In another presentation, Major General Michael McGuire of the Arizona National Guard told Biden – who ended his presidential run in 1988 over a plagiarism scandal – that other states are welcome to drop his state’s COVID-19 plan.
“Plagiarism is the highest form of flattery – that’s what we’re saying – so if everyone wants to copy what Arizona is doing, we think we’ve come up with it here,” McGuire said.