Joe Biden tonight was asked at the MSNBC Democratic debate about addressing issues of sexual violence and harassment as president.

Biden talked about his own record years ago cosponsoring and pushing for the Violence Against Women Act — something his campaign has spotlighted in a new ad this week.

But a number of people watching were very uncomfortable as he talked about combatting domestic violence by “punching at it and punching at it,” something that seemed to get an odd reaction in the room as well:

Punching at it ? — Zerlina Maxwell (@ZerlinaMaxwell) November 21, 2019

Lol did Biden just say men can hit women in self-defense and violence against women is a problem we need to keep “punching at”?! #DemDebate — Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) November 21, 2019

Harris, as Biden was doing his “punching at it” speech pic.twitter.com/NTAgABuJmo — Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) November 21, 2019

that really just happened right? It’s been a long day did I have some kind of auditory hallucination? — Jessica Mason Pieklo (@Hegemommy) November 21, 2019

Joe Biden just said in response to what we need to do about violence against women “…we have to keep punching at it and punching at it and punching at it.” oh no, Joe. 🤦🏻‍♀️ #DemocraticDebate — Free Dominguez (@freedominguez) November 21, 2019

Classic Biden: finishes good answer about stopping domestic violence by “changing the culture” — by urges society to “keep punching and punching”! Wait, what?!? #DemDebate — Rob GobbleGobble (@RobGeorge) November 21, 2019

biden just said to end intimate partner violence we need to “keep punching at it” pic.twitter.com/H8YA7Vd29E — wikipedia brown aka silk bonnet spectre (@eveewing) November 21, 2019

We’ve been waiting for a real conversation about #MeToo in the #DemDebates. Instead, we got a brief aside, complete with inappropriate puns: @Biden repeatedly said we have to keep “punching” at the issue of domestic violence. #MeTooVoter — UltraViolet (@UltraViolet) November 21, 2019

Surely, that didn’t just happen. Talking about domestic violence, Biden says “no man should ever hit a woman except in self-defense …” Then, he says to tackle the issue, we need to keep “punching at it, and punching at it, and punching at it.” 🤦🏾‍♂️ #DemocraticDebate — T.J. Holmes (@tjholmes) November 21, 2019

You can watch above, via MSNBC.

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