Sydney Ember and Jonathan Martin

Wellman is not the only Democrat who keeps finding flaws as she searches for the best candidate to win the White House.

“Voters are holding back because just when they start to fall in love, they find something that gets them a little nervous,” former Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago said. “The reason it’s so fluid is because they’re still searching for the horse that can win.”Michael R. Bloomberg believes that may be him. But Bloomberg’s apparent decision to mount a late entry into the presidential race represents something more than just the robust self-confidence of a New York City billionaire; it’s a manifestation of the Democratic angst that has been growing, particularly among moderate voters and party establishment figures.

Bloomberg has jolted the Democratic primary, drawing fire from the leading liberals in the field who said he was trying to buy the presidency while posing a direct threat to the centrist candidacy of Biden. But he has also exposed the jitters among establishment-aligned Democrats who fear that the leftward turn of the party is endangering their chances of building a winning coalition.For weeks, senior Democratic officials and donors have been musing about whether a new candidate could be lured in the race, a striking illustration of nervousness just three months before the Iowa caucuses. Some talked up Bloomberg and Hillary Clinton, but others wondered if Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio might make a late entry to unite a party splintered along ideological lines.

And while some party leaders have muted their concerns in an effort to be neutral, that restraint has started to give way to open expressions of alarm. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been repeating the same mantra — “Remember November” — in private about focusing on winning the general election, and has told Democratic allies she was uneasy about a nominee running on “Medicare for All.”

In an interview last week with Bloomberg News, the San Francisco-based speaker let her concerns slip, saying that creating government-run health care “would increase the vote in my own district, but that’s not what we need to do in order to win the Electoral College.”

Many voters are just as uneasy. “I like Elizabeth Warren,” said Janet Mayo-Smith, 64, who was attending an event for Biden in Franklin, New Hampshire, on Friday, before adding that she had concerns about whether Warren was too “radical” to win. She expressed some openness to Bloomberg, calling him “a good candidate” but also noting that it was late to join the race.

Stanley Brown, 49, also from New Hampshire, called Bloomberg’s move “interesting.’’ Asked if there were too many voices in the race already, he replied “no such thing.’’

“I’d consider anybody,” he said.

Yet if there is consensus around the high priority of finding the strongest candidate to take on Trump, there is less agreement among rank-and-file voters that the party needs a white knight to enter the race and rescue them. Interviews with Democrats across four states on Friday showed that many were content to pick from those who remained in the sprawling field.

“I’m not sure what his logic is exactly,” Ricky Hurtado, who attended a Hispanic voters forum in North Carolina that featured Warren, said of Bloomberg. Ticking through a number of the leading Democrats in the race, Hurtado, who is running for the state legislature next year, said, “I think we have enough voices in the primary right now covering the majority of the spectrum in the Democratic Party.”

In New Hampshire, where Biden and businessman Andrew Yang were at the statehouse on a frosty day, filing paperwork to be on the state’s primary ballot, voters mostly shrugged about Bloomberg, who on Friday filed paperwork to qualify for the Alabama primary. A few groused about a bloated field getting bigger.

Carolyn Stiles, 75, said she worried that such a large field would make it difficult for Democrats to unify behind one candidate, and described Bloomberg’s potential entrance into the race as “unhelpful.” She said she was considering Biden, Warren and Sen. Kamala Harris.

To some center-left Democratic candidates in the race, though, a Bloomberg bid could prove more than unhelpful. Were he to finance a major advertising campaign, he could siphon support, news media attention and ultimately votes from the more moderate candidates, clearing a path for Sanders and Warren.

“I don’t know who he hurts, but it’s not going to be Bernie or Elizabeth,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who is hoping to establish herself in Iowa as a centrist alternative to Biden. “We don’t need another billionaire,” she added.

Rep. Cedric Richmond of Louisiana, a co-chair of Biden’s campaign, was even blunter.

“It takes a whole lot of moxie to look at the Democratic field and say, ‘None of them can be president and I’ll enter the race and be the savior,’” Richmond said. “What does Bloomberg offer that’s different? It’s not like he’s 27 — he’s 77.”

Bloomberg may not prove to be the tonic the party is looking for. His record on policing and economic issues, and his skepticism about the #MeToo movement, could alienate large swaths of the Democratic electorate. And he is choosing an unconventional path in the primary; his advisers signaled Friday that if he runs, he’s unlikely to compete in the first four states.

But it is clear enough why he is tempted to run.

Biden’s unsteady performances in debates and on the campaign trail have undermined confidence in his ability to beat the president. They have hurt Biden’s fundraising and early-state polling while exacerbating what may be his biggest liability — that at 76, he may not be nimble enough to beat an unpredictable figure like Trump. Buttigieg is gaining support in Iowa, but polls show he has yet to draw any sizable support from nonwhite Democrats.

On the other flank of the party, Democrats are eyeing Sanders, a 78-year-old democratic socialist who just suffered a heart attack, and Warren, who is tightening her embrace around a pricey single-payer health care proposal that would terminate private insurance plans.

Both candidates have large and devoted followings, but Democrats have not put forward avowedly liberal presidential nominees in decades; a new New York Times/Siena College poll showing Warren and Sanders losing to Trump in some battleground states only further frayed nerves.

“That frightened a lot of people,” Terry McAuliffe, the former governor of Virginia and DNC chair, said of the survey.

Then came Tuesday’s elections, in which Democrats had great success with mostly moderate candidates who posted large margins in suburban jurisdictions — heightening the conviction among many that the party needed a centrist standard-bearer.

Bloomberg’s prospective run has mostly agitated Biden’s supporters, who were already on edge over his fundraising troubles, his dip in the polls in Iowa and Trump’s unrelenting assault on him and his son Hunter. “I don’t like that,” Marge Cudney, who came to celebrate Biden’s filing for the New Hampshire primary, said of Bloomberg. “He’s going to divide the team and will weaken everybody. I think he could pull some people away.”

Yet two former lawmakers who are supporting Biden — Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania and Bob Kerrey, a former senator and governor of Nebraska — spoke favorably about Bloomberg and said they would be comfortable with him as a candidate if Biden faltered.

“I’m for Joe,” Rendell said, “but if something were to happen where Joe was no longer a candidate, which I don’t believe is going to happen, I would enthusiastically consider the mayor as a good strong candidate, and I think he’d make a fine president.”

And not every voter dismissed Bloomberg, whose advisers believe will be viewed more favorably once Democrats nationally become more familiar with his business career and record as mayor.

Bryant Tolles, 80, of Concord, New Hampshire, gave Bloomberg high marks for his political experience. “I’m glad he entered the race,” said Tolles, who is undecided, adding, “They need another centrist who can appeal to the broad electorate.”

For all the heartburn in a party that is often given to indigestion about its presidential field, polls show that Democrats are generally pleased with their options. In a Monmouth University poll released this past week, roughly three-quarters of Democratic voters said they were satisfied with the field, while just 16% said they were not.

Moderate and conservative Democrats were more likely to say they wished someone new would get in the race, but only 22% of them expressed discontent with their choices.

What is more revealing is how many in the party are not yet settled on a candidate: The Times/Siena poll of Iowa, where voters are paying closest attention to the race, found that roughly two-thirds of likely caucusgoers could still be persuaded to change their minds.The ranks of the undecided include Alan Seabrooke, 89, of Elgin, Iowa, who said, “If you get somebody too far to the left, it scares people.”

Alex Stroda, a 40-year-old from Ottumwa, Iowa, who called himself a “leftist libertarian,” was just as concerned about 2020 but for the opposite reason: He thinks too many of the candidates are not progressive enough.

Stroda, a former vice chair of the Wapello County Democrats, who is considering Sanders, Warren and Yang, dismissed the logic behind a Bloomberg candidacy.

“This notion that he needs to ride in on a white horse and save the Democratic Party from somebody who is too left-wing,” he said, “is just an extension of the problem we have understanding politics in America, where we have the Democrats tacking to the right as the Republicans tack farther and farther right.”

This article originally appeared in

Bloomberg Nudges Into a Field Chock Full of Not-So-Sure Bets

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — Jackie Wellman worries that Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are too liberal to defeat President Donald Trump, thinks Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, may be too inexperienced and, while she is fond of Joe Biden, she is also uneasy about his tendency to misspeak. “I am worried about the top four candidates because they all have issues,” said Wellman, a 54-year-old Iowa caucusgoer from West Des Moines who likes Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

Sanders, 78, experienced “some chest discomfort” at an event Tuesday night, said Jeff Weaver, a longtime adviser; a medical evaluation found blockage in one artery, and two stents were inserted.

Sanders’ hospitalization is likely to intensify the focus on age in the Democratic race, even as much of the public debate has centered on policies like health care and immigration. The three leading Democratic candidates, as well as the president they are vying to challenge, are all in their 70s. One of those Democrats, Joe Biden, 76, has drawn his own age-related scrutiny because of his sometimes rambling discourses and uneven answers in debates.

Campaign aides did not provide any further information about Sanders’ condition and they have not said whether he had suffered a heart attack or whether he was just experiencing chest pain.

Late Wednesday afternoon, Sanders posted a tweet thanking his well wishers and using the incident as an opportunity to plug his signature policy proposal, “Medicare for All.”

Inserting stents into arteries is common in the United States — there are at least 600,000 such procedures a year, and perhaps up to 1 million. It is usually uncomplicated, and patients return home within a day or two.

“The prognosis is very good,” said Dr. Steven Nissen, chief academic officer of the Heart and Vascular Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. “Most patients are home the next day and back to work very quickly.” He said he did not see it as an impediment to returning to the campaign trail.

Still, it is unclear when Sanders will return to the campaign trail or whether he will be able to participate in the next Democratic debate, on Oct. 15 in Columbus, Ohio.

Sanders’s heart issue could prove to be a political problem for him, and it has the potential to change the dynamic of a still-fluid Democratic race. Sanders has largely avoided scrutiny of his age and his health. But he and his rivals will now be under increasing pressure to release detailed medical records as Democratic voters try to settle on the best candidate to take on President Donald Trump, who is himself 73.

Sanders, Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who is 70, have all said they would release their records before the first voting starts in February.

When Sanders returns to the campaign, he may find what was already his biggest challenge — finding new converts to his mission — to be even more difficult.

“I do think this makes it harder for him to persuade new supporters to come into his column because this will at least be in the back of people’s minds,” said Erik Smith, a longtime Democratic strategist.

The setback with his health also comes amid something of a political slump for Sanders in his second run for the presidency. He has continued to raise substantial amounts of money from his dedicated supporters — on Tuesday, his campaign celebrated an impressive third-quarter fundraising haul of $25.3 million — and has remained among the top three contenders in the primary. But he has been unable to expand his base beyond those enthusiasts. In recent weeks, he shook up his staff in Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two nominating states, in an effort to jump-start his candidacy as Warren passed him in some polls.

Sanders’ campaign said Wednesday that he began experiencing chest pain during a campaign event on Tuesday night in Las Vegas, where he had traveled for a series of appearances. He had visited an outdoor memorial dedicated to victims of the city’s 2017 mass shooting and had hosted a grassroots fundraiser at the Shiraz restaurant.

The restaurant’s owner, Raja Majid, said in a phone interview Wednesday that Sanders had spoken to a crowd of about 250 people. As Sanders began taking questions from the audience, he asked a staff member for a chair, an unusual request from a candidate who typically stands or paces onstage. “It’s been a long day here,” he said.

On Wednesday, Weaver spoke only in general terms about Sanders’ prognosis.

“Senator Sanders is conversing and in good spirits,” he said in the statement. “He will be resting up over the next few days. We are canceling his events and appearances until further notice, and we will continue to provide appropriate updates.”

Sanders was to travel to California and Iowa later this week.

Sanders’ allies quickly downplayed his procedure. RoseAnn DeMoro, a former leader of a nurse’s union and longtime Sanders surrogate, said “there are numerous presidents who have had heart problems and heart problems far worse” than what Sanders experienced Wednesday.

Yet many Democratic voters have expressed discomfort with nominating a candidate in their 70s. A Pew survey in May indicated that only 3% of Democratic voters believed the best age range for a president to be in was in their 70s. Forty-seven percent of those surveyed said they preferred a president in their 50s.

“I’m not an ageist, and I never have been, but as I get older I realize the limitations of getting older, and I can’t even begin to imagine the strain of being President of the United States,” said Steve Horner, 68, a retired special education teacher from Las Vegas who travels with a portable oxygen unit to help him breathe.

“I think it does matter,” added Horner, who said he had not picked a candidate yet.

Others acknowledged that age was an issue, but not the preeminent one.

“Would I prefer someone who is younger? Yes, but it’s not our top thing,” Elizabeth Bennett, 54, said at a gun safety forum in Las Vegas. On the campaign trail, each of the three septuagenarian Democrats has sought to project an image of good health, with Warren making a point to jog to the stage of her campaign events and Biden running through parades.

The onetime captain of his high school track team, Sanders has done the same. He has pursued a blistering campaign schedule often characterized by multiple stops a day, and has been loath to take time off from the trail. He pitched in the softball game his campaign staged over the summer on Iowa’s “Field of Dreams,” and his aides have released other images of him playing catch or basketball.

Sanders’ voter events are usually high-energy affairs, where he regales enthusiastic crowds with his calls for “Medicare for all” and rails against the corporate and Washington elite.

In recent weeks, he has struggled with hoarseness, which forced him to cancel several events last month, but he then returned to the campaign trail. In March, he hit his head on the edge of a glass shower door, requiring seven stitches.

The Sanders campaign had planned to go on air with his first television ads of the campaign this week in Iowa, announcing a two-week $1.3 million buy on Tuesday. His campaign said on Wednesday that it was postponing those ads.

The procedure Sanders had is generally not considered dangerous. Stents are tiny metal tube-shaped cages used to widen arteries in which blood flow has become impeded. They are inserted into coronary arteries when patients are suffering from angina, which is pain that results from clogged vessels, or heart attacks, in which blood flow is completely blocked.

Dr. Gilbert Tang, a heart surgeon at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, said that if Sanders’ heart was not damaged, he should make a full recovery. But he also sounded a note of caution, saying the risks depended on which artery was blocked: “We don’t know what the anatomy looks like and what kind of stent at what location,” he said.

During his first presidential run, Sanders released a letter from his doctor declaring that he was in “very good health.” The letter stated that Sanders had suffered several ailments during his life, including gout and diverticulitis. The letter also said Sanders had normal readings for blood pressure, pulse and blood count and that he had no history of cardiovascular disease.

Bernie Sanders Is Hospitalized, Raising Questions About His Candidacy

Sen. Bernie Sanders was recovering in a Las Vegas hospital on Wednesday after being treated for blockage of an artery, forcing him to cancel his events in the coming days and casting uncertainty over a candidacy already struggling to win new voters.

As of Wednesday evening, Sanders, 78, was still recovering in the hospital in Las Vegas, where he arrived a day earlier for a series of campaign events. Jeff Weaver, a longtime adviser to the senator, said he had experienced “some chest discomfort” at an event Tuesday night; a medical evaluation found blockage in one artery, and two stents were inserted.”

Sanders’ episode is likely to intensify the focus on age in the Democratic race, even as much of the public debate has centered on policies like health care and immigration. The three leading Democratic candidates, as well as the president they are vying to challenge, are all in their 70s. One of those Democrats, Joe Biden, 76, has drawn his own age-related scrutiny because of his sometimes rambling discourses and uneven answers in debates.

At the same time, Democratic voters and officials have been divided over whether it is time to make way for a younger candidate who represents generational change in the party.

Campaign aides did not provide any further information about Sanders’ episode. Throughout the day, Sanders’ top advisers remained guarded, telling other staff members little, even as some supporters sought to project optimism both in private conversations and on Twitter.

Late Wednesday afternoon, however, Sanders posted a tweet thanking his well wishers and using the incident as an opportunity to plug his signature policy proposal, “Medicare for All.”

Sanders’ campaign said he began experiencing chest pain during a campaign event at a restaurant in Las Vegas on Tuesday night, where spoke to a crowd of about 250 people. As Sanders began taking questions from the audience, he asked a staff member for a chair, an unusual request from a candidate who typically stands or paces onstage. “It’s been a long day here,” he said as he sat.

Sanders' Heart Procedure Highlights Age as Campaign Issue

Sen. Bernie Sanders was hospitalized and treated for blockage of an artery, his campaign said on Wednesday, forcing him to cancel his events in the coming days and casting uncertainty over a candidacy already struggling to win new voters and to improve his standing in the polls.

“During a campaign event yesterday evening, Senator Sanders experienced some chest discomfort,” Jeff Weaver, a longtime adviser to Sanders, said in a statement. “Following medical evaluation and testing he was found to have a blockage in one artery and two stents were successfully inserted. Senator Sanders is conversing and in good spirits. He will be resting up over the next few days. We are canceling his events and appearances until further notice, and we will continue to provide appropriate updates.”

Sanders, 78, is currently recovering in a Las Vegas hospital, the campaign said.

Sanders on Tuesday night visited an outdoor memorial in Las Vegas that is dedicated to victims of the city’s 2017 mass shooting. He also hosted a grassroots fundraiser at the Shiraz restaurant.

The restaurant’s owner, Raja Majid, said in a phone interview that Sanders spoke to a crowd of about 250 people. As he began taking questions from the audience, he asked a staff member, Ari Rabin-Havt, a deputy campaign manager, for a chair, an unusual request from a candidate who typically stands or paces onstage. “I’m going to sit down here,” Sanders said, according to a video posted on Periscope. “It’s been a long day here.”

It is unclear whether Sanders will be able to participate in the next debate, scheduled for Oct. 15 in Columbus, Ohio.

Not long after news of Sanders’ hospitalization emerged, several of his rivals for the Democratic nomination sent good wishes his way.

“Glad to hear my friend @BernieSanders is doing well and in good spirits — wishing him a speedy recovery,” Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey wrote on Twitter.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren began an appearance in Las Vegas on Wednesday by bringing up Sanders. “I know everyone here wishes him well, wants to see him strong and back on the trail as soon as possible,” she said. “I’ve called, I’ve texted and I’ll send your best wishes if that’s OK with everyone.”

Sanders Is Hospitalized for Heart Procedure and Cancels Events

Sen. Bernie Sanders was hospitalized and treated for an artery blockage and is canceling his events for the coming days, a campaign official said on Wednesday.

Sanders, 78, was traveling for a gun forum in Las Vegas that other candidates were also scheduled to attend. He was to travel to California later this week.

Weaver read the statement to staffers on a quickly assembled conference call at 10:30 a.m. ET, according to an aide on the call. No one on the staff asked questions following his statement, which the aide said Weaver read in measured tones.

One campaign aide, referring to Sanders, told The Times on Wednesday morning: “He feels better than ever because that’s how people feel after they get a stent and there’s more blood flow.”

Sanders has kept a brutal schedule on the campaign trail, typically holding multiple events in several cities a day. Over the weekend, he held several events at colleges in New Hampshire. Following his trips this week to Nevada and California, he had been expected to travel to Iowa this weekend, according to a campaign aide.

The Sanders campaign had planned to go on air with his first television ads of the campaign this week in Iowa, announcing a two-week $1.3 million buy on Tuesday. An ad tracking service, Medium Buying, said on Wednesday that Sanders began canceling those ads. The reason for the cancellation was not immediately known. Even as late as Tuesday night, Faiz Shakir, Sanders’ campaign manager, was talking excitedly about the ad buy on a call with supporters.

On the trail, Sanders’ events are usually high-energy affairs, where he regales enthusiastic crowds with his calls for “Medicare for All” and tuition-free public college and rails against the corporate and Washington elite. In recent weeks, he has struggled with a hoarse voice that emerged during a swing through Iowa and Colorado and then worsened heading into the last debate in mid-September. He subsequently canceled several events to “rest his voice” but has since returned to the campaign trail.

In March, he hit his head on the edge of a glass shower door, requiring seven stitches.

Sanders has not yet released his medical records though he has vowed to do so. During his first presidential run, he released a letter from his doctor declaring that he was in “very good health.” The letter stated that Sanders had suffered several ailments during his life, including gout, diverticulitis, superficial skin cancers and laryngitis from acid reflux. The letter also said Sanders had normal readings for blood pressure, pulse and blood count and that he had no history of cardiovascular disease.

Sanders Hospitalized for Heart Procedure, Cancels Campaign Events

Sanders has kept a brutal schedule on the campaign trail, typically holding multiple events in several cities a day. Over the weekend, he held several events at colleges in New Hampshire. Following his trips to Las Vegas and California, he had been expected to travel to Iowa this weekend, according to a campaign aide.

Bernie Sanders Hospitalized For Treatment of Artery Blockage

In a series of moves, the campaign has replaced the New Hampshire state director, Joe Caiazzo, with Shannon Jackson, who is deeply enmeshed in Sanders’ inner circle and who led the senator’s reelection campaign in Vermont last year. Caiazzo, who was Sanders’ political director in Massachusetts and Rhode Island during the 2016 campaign, has been named state director in Massachusetts.

The moves were announced to the campaign’s New Hampshire staff Sunday.

“We feel really good about where we stand in New Hampshire right now,” said Faiz Shakir, Sanders’ campaign manager. “The poll numbers, the volunteer capacity, the crowds that we have been getting at these events all suggest to us that we are in a very good position.”

He added: “Obviously, much work to do to continue that trend.”

The Sanders campaign also recently shook up its top leadership, promoting both Ari Rabin-Havt, chief of staff, and Arianna Jones, communications director, to the position of deputy campaign manager and bringing on a new senior communications adviser.

Sanders’ campaign said the moves in New Hampshire and elsewhere are an attempt to expand his operations and organize supporters in the northeast as they look beyond the early states toward Super Tuesday, when several other New England states, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s state of Massachusetts, will vote. The campaign recently hired a Maine state director, Ben Collings, a member of the Maine Legislature who ran Maine for Sanders’ 2016 campaign.

“This campaign is building up and spreading out over the next few months,” Shakir said.

But Sanders’ decision to shake up his campaign in first-in-the-nation New Hampshire, a state he almost certainly must win to have a chance at the nomination, underscores the challenges he faces in recreating the formula from his landslide victory there against Hillary Clinton.

Without the same mix of New Hampshire’s anti-establishment and progressive voters all to himself this time, he has fallen into the 20s in most polls, bunched up with Joe Biden and Warren at the top of the surveys in the state.

The rise of Warren, in particular, has created difficulties for Sanders because, like him, she is from a neighboring state and, also like him, appeals to much of the party’s left. Potentially even more threatening, she represents a new alternative for voters who were mostly aligned with Sanders in 2016 to oppose Clinton.

What gets less attention, but which some New Hampshire Democrats said helps explain Sanders’ challenges there, are the long-shot candidates: Andrew Yang, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Marianne Williamson are drawing attention from the sort of avant-garde voters who had no such alternative options last cycle other than the Vermont senator. New Hampshire Democrats said Caiazzo, who grew up in Massachusetts and last year ran the reelection campaign of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, was a traditional party operative and always something of an unusual fit for Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist whose campaign is about upending the establishment.

And increasingly, Sanders, in New Hampshire and beyond, is focused less on winning over traditional Democratic activists than he is in mobilizing volunteers as well as new supporters, particularly individuals who have not participated in past primaries, including independents and disaffected Republicans. New Hampshire Democrats also believe that Sanders did not have the sort of organization befitting the candidate who had won the state so overwhelmingly three years ago.

Jackson, who was previously the Sanders campaign’s northeast regional director, has worked with Sanders for years, including in his senate office in Burlington. He also helped start Our Revolution, the senator’s political advocacy group.

In a statement, Jackson said he was “honored to be taking on a more direct role in this critically important state” and praised the team there.

The campaign said it had recently added a campus outreach director and labor outreach director in New Hampshire as well.

Sanders Campaign Shakes Up New Hampshire Operation

Sen. Bernie Sanders has overhauled his New Hampshire state operations, as his campaign fights to maintain support in a state he won by more than 22 percentage points in 2016.

The woman, Amy Lappos, said in an interview with The Hartford Courant that Biden “put his hand around my neck and pulled me in to rub noses with me” at a fundraiser in Connecticut in 2009.

“When he was pulling me in, I thought he was going to kiss me on the mouth,” she said in the interview. She said that the encounter “wasn’t sexual” but that there was “a line of respect” and Biden had crossed it.

Her allegations follow a weekend in which Biden defended himself against a similar complaint from a former Nevada assemblywoman, Lucy Flores, who said in an essay published Friday that the former vice president had touched and kissed her inappropriately at a campaign event in 2014.

In a statement late Monday that Lappos sent to The New York Times, she said she was speaking out because she was disappointed in the way Flores has been treated in the aftermath of her allegations. “Uninvited affection is not okay. Objectifying women is not okay,” Lappos said.

“Referring to this type of behavior as ‘simply affection’ or ‘grandpalike’ or ‘friendly’ is ridiculously dismissive and part of the problem,’’ she said in the statement. “Saying ‘but Trump ... .’ is dangerous and sets the bar for Democratic men far below where it should be.”

Biden’s team had already issued two statements trying to contain the damage. Earlier Monday, his spokesman, Bill Russo, sent a third, lengthy email to reporters criticizing what he said were misrepresentations of Biden’s past behavior, and seeking to link some of the attacks on him to Republicans.

Russo cited an image of Biden holding the shoulders of Stephanie Carter, the wife of former Defense Secretary Ash Carter, and another of Biden kissing the head of Sen. Chris Coons’ daughter, arguing that the criticism of the former vice president was rooted in inaccurate assumptions about what was occurring in the pictures.

Both Carter and Coons’ young daughter welcomed Biden’s embrace, Russo said, pointing to a Medium post Carter wrote and comments Coons made about how close his family is to the Bidens.

But Biden’s team of advisers is preparing for more criticism about his past behavior, acknowledging that, given Biden’s nearly 50-year career in politics, it’s inevitable that others will come forward to say he made them feel uncomfortable.

Russo pointed out that much of the criticism about Biden’s conduct has come from Republicans and that some of it has been manufactured entirely.

The aide pointed to photoshopped images, including one in which Biden is portrayed touching Carter’s breast, and another cropped photo of the former vice president comforting his grandson at the funeral of his son, Beau — which he called “most galling of all.’’

“These smears and forgeries have existed in the dark recesses of the internet for a while,” Russo said. “To this day, right-wing trolls and others continue to exploit them for their own gain,” he added, warning against a “cottage industry of lies.”

On Monday, the Drudge Report posted a collage of Biden photographs, including one that photoshopped him standing behind a crying piccolo player in the Villanova University band, a widely shared image from the 2015 NCAA basketball tournament.

Biden’s advisers believe that the more the right pushes images of him, real or fake, the more it will help them convince Democrats that Republicans are trying to derail a potential challenger who performs best in polls against President Donald Trump. The aides spoke on condition of anonymity because the former vice president is not yet in the race.

But Biden’s inner circle is also deeply suspicious about the timing of Flores’ criticism, believing it is part of a larger effort by hostile Democrats to undermine the former vice president’s candidacy before he even announces, the advisers said.

The aggressive response by Biden’s aides represents the latest indication of what they said over the weekend: that he will not be dissuaded by the allegations from entering the presidential race.

The challenge for Biden now, though, is that Flores is no longer alone in speaking out.

In her interview with the Courant, Lappos said the encounter that made her uncomfortable occurred at a fundraiser in 2009, when she was working as a congressional aide to Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut.

“There’s absolutely a line of decency,” she told the Courant. “There’s a line of respect. Crossing that line is not grandfatherly. It’s not cultural. It’s not affection. It’s sexism or misogyny.”

She said she “never filed a complaint, to be honest, because he was the vice president. I was a nobody.”

The office of Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., confirmed Monday that the event described in the Courant article took place and that Murphy, who was a congressman at the time, attended it.

The recent scrutiny of Biden’s physical behavior began on Friday when Flores, a Democrat, published an essay in New York Magazine’s The Cut, which described an encounter with Biden in 2014 that she described as mortifying.

In the essay, she wrote that Biden had come to a rally to help her fledgling campaign for lieutenant governor of Nevada and had come up behind her, touched her and planted “a big slow kiss” on the back of her head. Biden, in a statement Friday, said he did not believe he acted inappropriately, but pledged to listen to any accuser.

Since the essay published, Flores, 39, has praised Biden for being willing to listen to concerns and clarify his intentions. But she has said she finds it hard to believe that Biden could not have been aware of how he made her and other women feel and has called his behavior “completely inappropriate.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/01/us/politics/joe-biden-amy-lappos.html" id="a82a8563-af88-3d19-aade-027657e56f79">The New York Times</a>.

A second woman on Monday accused Joe Biden of touching her in a way that made her feel uncomfortable, intensifying the scrutiny of the former vice president’s close physical interactions with women over the years as he prepares for a likely presidential bid.

A Second Woman Says Biden's Touching Made Her Uncomfortable

Biden also issued a sweeping statement acknowledging that he had shown “expressions of affection” to people during his years on the campaign trail, but said, “not once — never — did I believe I acted inappropriately.” It was the second damage-control statement to come from his team since Flores made her allegation on Friday, and it was released minutes before she appeared on CNN and argued that Biden’s behavior with her at a 2014 campaign event was “disqualifying” for a presidential candidate.

Yet even as Biden defended himself, and his former staff members praised his conduct as a boss, some of the former vice president’s would-be rivals in the 2020 Democratic field and some allies said that Flores’ claim should be taken seriously.

“I have no reason not to believe Lucy,” Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. Asked if the allegation should disqualify Biden from running for president, Sanders said: “I think that’s a decision for the vice president to make. I’m not sure that one incident alone disqualifies anybody.”

Biden’s advisers indicated on Sunday that the accusation would not dissuade him from entering the 2020 campaign, which they suggest he still intends to do at the end of April or just after. But Flores’ claim, and Biden’s attempt to rebut her story without dismissing it — or her — offered a vivid illustration of the #MeToo-era challenges that await a 76-year-old political veteran known for his close physical contact with women, including hugging, kissing and touching them.

The allegation came shortly after Biden faced criticism for saying he wished he “could have done something” when Anita Hill accused Justice Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment — even though he led the Senate committee that questioned her — leading some in his party to brace for an extended reckoning about Biden and gender if he enters the race.

“Maybe Biden and other male politicians should observe their female counterparts,” Gloria Steinem, the feminist advocate, said in an email Sunday, noting that since “women candidates are unlikely to hug and kiss men they don’t know, male politicians could refrain from hugging and kissing women they don’t know.”

The often garrulous Biden, treading gingerly at a moment when women around the world are coming forward to share details about mistreatment by men, only issued a statement through his aides rather than grant interviews. “We have arrived at an important time when women feel they can and should relate their experiences, and men should pay attention,” Biden said.

In her CNN interview Sunday, Flores, 39, said she was glad the former vice president was willing to listen and clarify his intentions. But she said she found it hard to believe that Biden could not have been aware of how he made her and other women feel, saying there was “a little bit of a disconnect.”

“It’s completely inappropriate,” Flores said of Biden’s behavior with women. “And that is something that we should consider when we’re talking about the background of a person who is considering running for president.”

She first leveled her charges in an essay published on Friday in New York magazine’s The Cut. Flores, a candidate for lieutenant governor of Nevada in 2014, said that when Biden visited that year to campaign for her and other Democrats, he came up behind her before the rally, put his hands on her shoulders and planted “a big slow kiss” on the back of her head.

Flores said she felt compelled to come forward now because she believed Biden’s behavior with women was being left out of political conversations as he prepares for a possible presidential run.

Biden has drawn attention in the past for his intimate touching of political allies, their family members and even supporters he has just met — gestures that are seen as excessive to the point of creepy by some but viewed as harmless by his defenders.

Biden’s allies said he often drew close to people he sensed were nervous before they went on stage in an effort to relax them, suggesting that is what he was doing with Flores. On Saturday night, Henry R. Munoz III, the organizer of the 2014 rally and a co-founder of the Latino Victory Project, issued a statement asserting that there was no evidence that Flores and Biden were ever alone together at the event. ( Flores said the incident happened just offstage at the event and that there were not many people nearby at that moment.)

And, in recognition of the political peril the former vice president now finds himself in, Biden’s female aides and supporters rushed to his defense over the weekend, some of them citing anecdotes about when he, for example, offered to get coffee himself when a male colleague asked one of his female aides to do it.

“I have often been asked what it was like to work in the U.S. Senate (a famously all-male environment) in the early- to mid-1990s,” Cynthia Hogan, who worked for Biden as a congressional aide and was his counsel when he was vice president, said in an email Sunday. “I can happily answer that my experience was wonderful BECAUSE I was lucky enough to work for Joe Biden, who had promoted several women, including me, to leadership roles on the staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and who treated us with respect and insisted that others do the same.”

Amanda Loveday, a longtime Biden supporter in South Carolina, said, “We all express emotion in our own ways, and Joe Biden’s has always been with gratitude and respect.”

But some of Biden’s potential Democratic rivals, as well as one top White House aide, were less charitable, suggesting he must answer to the specific claim.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said on ABC’s “This Week” that “people raise issues and they have to address them, and that’s what he will have to do with the voters if he gets into the race,” adding that she has “no reason not to believe” Flores.

And Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate and a longtime friend of Biden’s, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that while “one allegation is not disqualifying,” it “should be taken seriously.”

President Donald Trump’s allies made little effort to deny their glee about the accusations, but at the same time evinced little self-awareness about the multiple sexual misconduct charges Trump himself has faced.

Trump would face a hard time making an issue out of the allegation, given that his mistreatment of women far exceeds anything Biden has been accused of. More than a dozen women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct, include groping and assault. In the weeks before the 2016 election, an “Access Hollywood” tape surfaced in which he was heard making vulgar comments about women.

“I think Joe Biden has a big problem because he calls it affection and handshakes,” Kellyanne Conway, a counselor to Trump, said on “Fox News Sunday.” “His party calls it completely inappropriate.”

In Nevada, some who know Flores called her fearless, driven and a champion of women.

“She’s not afraid to put herself out there,” said Felicia Ortiz, a member of the state Board of Education. “I think that’s one of the things that I admire most about her — her honesty and integrity.”

Ortiz, who said Flores had not told her about the episode, said her friend “won’t be fake for the sake of making other people happy.”

But some influential figures in the state’s political establishment, which is still led by former Sen. Harry Reid, view her with far less favor.

“Flores has a fierce but small following,” said Jon Ralston, a longtime Nevada political analyst. “She lost badly in her last two races. She fell out of favor with many after her 2014 disaster and subsequent poor showing in a run for Congress.”

After losing her bid for lieutenant governor, Flores ran for a Republican-held House seat in 2016 but again fell short in the primary.

But in that same year, she endorsed Sanders’ campaign for president. That early support helped win her a seat on the board of Our Revolution, the pro-Sanders advocacy group, and an appointment to a reform commission convened by the Democratic National Committee after the contentious 2016 primary between Sanders and Hillary Clinton.

Flores had a falling out with some in Sanders’ orbit and left the Our Revolution board. She attended former Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s campaign kickoff in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday, but said she is not supporting any candidate at the moment, though she allowed that she “probably will down the road.”

She also said she had attended an event for Julián Castro and was part of a group that met with Kamala Harris’ campaign manager.

Flores said she was not paid for her essay in New York magazine. A spokeswoman for the magazine declined on Sunday to comment on Flores’ piece but confirmed that Flores was not compensated.

Flores, who now lives in California, started her own company dedicated to empowering Latinas. Over the weekend, a post appeared on Facebook that appeared to be promoting Flores’ essay and her company, Luz Collective.

“One small way to support Lucy Flores right now? Pick up something from her patriarchy smashing Alpha Latina merchandise on Luz Collective,” the post said. Flores said a friend posted the message without her knowledge.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/31/us/politics/joe-biden-flores.html" id="30b1bf3d-c25b-3124-a4c5-cdac4e4dabcf">The New York Times</a>.

Former Vice President Joe Biden scrambled on Sunday to contain a quickly growing crisis for his likely presidential bid, putting forward several former female aides and allies to praise his treatment of women after Lucy Flores, a former Nevada legislator, accused Biden of kissing and touching her.

Biden Scrambles to Stem Crisis After Lucy Flores' Allegation

On Wednesday, Biden decided he needed to address the matter — and his future as a possible presidential candidate — personally. Yet his approach was unusual: He released a seemingly homemade video, laying out his views on connecting with voters emotionally and even physically, and vowing to “be more mindful and respectful of people’s personal space.”

“In my career, I’ve always tried to make a human connection — that’s my responsibility, I think,” said Biden, sitting on a sofa, his legs crossed. “I shake hands, I hug people, I grab men and women by the shoulders and say, ‘You can do this.’”

But he added: “Social norms have begun to change, they’ve shifted, and the boundaries of protecting personal space have been reset, and I get it. I get it. I hear what they’re saying.”

The two-minute video amounted to a tacit admission by Biden, 76, and his aides that they needed to take more action than they had since Friday, when a former Nevada assemblywoman, Lucy Flores, published an essay in which she described Biden touching her inappropriately and kissing her on the head in 2014. On Tuesday, two more women told The New York Times that the former vice president’s touches made them uncomfortable.

And his new explanation immediately became part of a lengthening queue of remarks that have prolonged the speculation about whether he will run for president. Though he has not yet announced he would seek the 2020 Democratic nomination, Biden is widely expected to join the race soon. He began his video in a manner that suggested his entry is just a matter of time: “Folks,” he said, “in the coming month I expect to be talking to you about a whole lot of issues, and I’ll always be direct with you.”

Biden’s aides said Wednesday that he wanted to address the accusations about his physical contact directly after listening to the women who have criticized him, as well as many other female friends, family members and advisers. They said he was particularly affected by the comments of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a longtime friend of his who is similarly rooted in an earlier political era, when she said Tuesday that “people’s space is important to them, and what’s important is how they receive it and not necessarily how you intended it.”

Biden’s campaign-in-waiting has not ruled out the possibility of a televised interview, but advisers indicated that he was more likely to address reporters when he delivers a speech to a union conference Friday in Washington. The aides spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Wearing a blue suit jacket over a white shirt with no tie, Biden stared directly into the camera as he issued his statement, which lacked a direct apology to the women who have come forward. The hastily made video, which appeared to be filmed on a phone, was recorded at Biden’s Northern Virginia home.

Biden tried to frame the issue around changing social norms. But some women say it is fundamentally about the invasion of personal space, and the change is that they now feel empowered to speak out. In Washington, Biden has been known throughout his political career for his tactile style of politics, with shoulder rubs, hugs and kisses that some women now say were troubling to them at the time.

Biden also stressed the role that personal connection had played in his political career.

“Over the years, knowing what I’ve been through, the things that I’ve faced, I found that scores, if not hundreds, of people have come up to me and reached out for solace and comfort — something, anything that may help them get through the tragedy they’re going through,” he said. “It’s just who I am. I’ve never thought of politics as cold and antiseptic.”

Reaction to the complaints about Biden’s behavior has been divided, and that carried over to his video address Wednesday.

Writer Andi Zeisler, co-founder of Bitch Media, cited the lack of an apology as a problem. “Imagine all the time he could have saved,” she wrote, “by typing ‘I’m sorry. I will do better.’”

Alicia Garza, a prominent progressive activist, said on Twitter that she was “disappointed” with Biden’s statement and called it “mealy-mouthed at best.”

“Try this,” she added, “I’m so sorry that my actions had this impact on you. I will do the work to be better and do better.”

Others, across a range of the political spectrum, praised the video.

Several female Democratic lawmakers said they were happy to see him addressing the matter more fully.

“I think he needs to listen, and he’s committed to doing that,” said Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois said, “One thing I know about Joe Biden: He’s a man of his word. If he says he’ll do better then he’ll do better.” She added, “And I do believe that if the women felt that he was inappropriate we have to respect how they felt about it.”

Amy McGrath, the Democratic former Marine fighter pilot who narrowly lost a House race in Kentucky last year, said in a tweet that Biden was “honest, humble, and cares deeply about our country.”

Jennifer Palmieri, a former senior aide to President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, wrote in a tweet: “In his own words and clearly heartfelt. Best thing he could do to help himself in this moment.”

For five days, Joe Biden remained in the background as four women came forward saying they had been uncomfortable with the ways he had touched them. He put out three statements through a spokesman, but none of them was his own account or an acknowledgment of the discomfort he had caused.

Sydney Ember and Jonathan Martin

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