During the inauguration of new Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, Joe Biden innapropriately put his hands on Carter’s wife. As Carter was at the podium, Joe Biden stood very closely behind Carter’s wife and began rubbing her shoulders. At one point he appears to have been either whispering into her ear or smelling her hair. Throughout the unwanted touching, Mrs. Carter stood perfectly still and stared straight ahead at her husband. When Carter began to turn and reach for his wife, Biden quickly stepped backwards and put his hands behind his back. It did not appear that Carter saw Biden doing this.
This is not the first instance in which Biden has gotten innapropriately close to the female relative of a politician being sworn in. During the inauguration of Senator Chris Coons, Biden grabbed the arm of Coon’s daughter and kissed the side of her forehead. One Tweet also showed a picture of Biden seated next to a man in police uniform where Biden has his hand on the officers leg. A Twitter Hashtag dedicated to Biden’s groping was started by Michelle Malkin. Appearing to parody the slogan, ‘Hands up don’t shoot,’ slogan being used is ‘Hands off don’t grope.’
Neither Obama nor Biden has commented on the wandering-hands acusations against the vice-president.