In an interview with Hill.TV, comedian Chelsea Handler brushed off Joe Biden’s alleged behavior toward former Nevada Assemblywoman Lucy Flores.
“That’s a really silly thing to have to apologize for,” Handler told Jamal Simmons during the interview, which aired on Tuesday. Despite her vocal support of the #MeToo movement — once describing it as a “complete referendum” on President Trump’s election — Handler has very different views on her own chosen candidates.
“I don’t think any of these people should be apologizing for anything, let’s just get somebody in there,” she told Harris. “We have a man who’s acting like a lunatic, and the Democrats are being really, really too soft and apologetic about every little thing. That’s not a winning attitude.”
Furthermore, Handler is not comfortable with people labeling Biden’s behavior as sexual assault in the first place. “I understand she was uncomfortable; I don’t dismiss that,” she said. “I don’t like the comparison to that, to sexual assault — it’s not, and there are real victims of sexual assault who’ve been through hell,” she said. “That diminishes real stories, so it’s a tricky time.”
In response, Flores told the Hill that Handler’s statements “reflect a total lack of understanding of how Mr. Biden behaved with me, and about consent in general.”
“It wasn’t silly to me and it isn’t silly to millions of women who have to endure this kind of invasive behavior throughout their entire lives,” she continued. “Neither I, nor the six other women who spoke out, have ever said this was sexual assault, but we are doing a disservice to women everywhere if the only thing we are going to take seriously is assault and rape, and ask women to just take one for the team so we can ‘get someone in there.'”