Getty Images/Sean Rayford
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden addresses a crowd at the Hyatt Park community center on May 4, 2019 in Columbia, South Carolina.
- After meeting the 13-year-old granddaughter of an Iowa voter on Wednesday, former Vice President Joe Biden turned to her brothers and said, "You've got one job here, keep the guys away from her."
- The interaction raised some eyebrows and added to a growing list of awkward encounters the 2020 frontrunner has had with women both on and off the campaign trail.
- Biden has also been accused by four women of inappropriately touching them or invading their personal space.
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Former vice president and 2020 Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden raised some eyebrows over an interaction he had with an Iowa voter's granddaughter before a campaign event Wednesday.
The Boston Globe reported that Biden met the voter at a coffee shop before the event. When Biden met the voter's granddaughter, he asked her age. After she replied that she was 13 years old, Biden turned to her brothers and said, "You've got one job here, keep the guys away from your sister."
The interaction adds to a growing list of encounters Biden's had with women and girls on the campaign trail, many of which made headlines in the wake of multiple accusations that he inappropriately touched women or invaded their personal space before launching his campaign.
Earlier this month, during a campaign event in New Hampshire, the former vice president repeated a joke about touching women after a female supporter leaned in to whisper into his ear.
"I want the press to know, she pulled me close," Biden said, as the older, almost entirely white crowd laughed and applauded. The comment drew immediate backlash from feminists and left-leaning progressives, many of whom took issue with Biden's cavalier attitude towards the allegations against him in lieu of a direct apology.
And late last month, Biden was criticized for telling a 10-year-old girl she's "good-looking" and placing his hands on her shoulders.
At a rally for his 2020 campaign in Houston in May, the girl asked Biden a question about the divided state of the country, The New York Times reported.
Biden in response touched on the nation's immigrant heritage before saying, "I'll bet you're as bright as you are good-looking."
The girl then told the former vice president her favorite subject is journalism, and he took her to the back of the room to the press area and placed his hands on her shoulders at one point.