Maybe it’s good that it was 2,000 miles away.
President Biden experienced an awkward and flirtatious moment on Monday during a video conference event with health care workers in Arizona, during which he stopped to congratulate a nurse on her youthful appearance, even blabbering on that she looks “like a student at first year “.
Biden introduced himself to some of his old “creepy” jokes when he responded to the nursing supervisor’s detailed description of giving shots to COVID-19 by asking him about his age.
“Are you a freshman in college?” Biden asked Brittney Hayes at the end of a conversation in which she had outlined the process for getting people shot at the Glendale Farm State vaccination site.
“No. No, ”said Hayes, who had described herself from Arizona State University at the start of the talk, but who made it clear she was the“ nurse responsible for the vaccination site. ”
“You look like a freshman!” Biden said laughing.
“Why thank you,” he said through the mask.
But Biden was not finished.
After Vice President Kamala Harris took a turn asking questions, Biden continued to show disbelief that Hayes was a medical professional.
“And you’re a nurse?” Biden said in the video call, which was broadcast publicly.
“I am, I am a nurse. I am an RN. I’ve been an RN for about nine years now, ”he said. Registered nurses usually have at least two years of college education or a bachelor’s degree.
The president replied: “I know I have been a major consumer of healthcare, I can say, I know the vice president knows, when I say it, doctors let you live, nurses make you want to live. If there are angels in heaven, they are all nurses, men and women. And this is no exaggeration. That is the truth of God. “
Biden, 78, is infamous for getting into women’s personal space, sometimes while whispering tips in her ear or doing an impromptu neck massage.
Supporters of former President Donald Trump nicknamed him “Creepy Joe” during the 2020 campaign and happily distributed montages that did.
Biden was even forced to post a video near the start of his 2019 campaign in which he acknowledged making people “uncomfortable” with his tactile gestures and promised to be “much more attentive” in the future.
Biden’s interaction with the nurse came just days after Saturday Night Live host Colin Jost joked about his comfortable record at the start of the show’s “Weekend Update” segment.
“President Biden said Friday that he will go ahead with his $ 1.9 trillion stimulus plan with or without Republican support, because this economy needs a massage and Joe Biden is not waiting for permission,” Jost criticized.
The president’s virtual visit had more than an awkward moment. In a different presentation, Arizona National Guard General Michael McGuire told Biden – who ended his 1988 presidency due to a plagiarism scandal – that other states are welcome to start the COVID plan. 19 of his state.
“Plagiarism is the highest form of flattery, that’s what we say, so if everyone wants to copy what Arizona does, we think we’ve figured it out here,” McGuire said.