Stephanie Carter said former vice-president had his hands on her shoulders ‘as a means of offering his support’

As Joe Biden faces intense scrutiny of his behavior toward women, the wife of former defense secretary Ash Carter has dismissed claims a picture of her with the former vice-president is an example of unwanted touching.

Biden denies inappropriate behavior after claim he kissed Nevada lawmaker Read more

In a Medium post late on Sunday, Stephanie Carter discussed the photo, in which Biden has his hands on her shoulders and appears to be whispering in her ear during the swearing-in ceremony for her husband in 2015.

“As the sole owner of my story,” Carter wrote, “it is high time that I reclaim it – from strangers, Twitter, the pundits and the late-night hosts. I won’t pretend that this will be the last of that picture, but it will be the last of other people speaking for me.”

Biden, she said, had hugged her because he sensed she was “uncharacteristically nervous” and had leaned in to thank her for letting her husband serve in the Obama administration. He kept his hands on her shoulders “as a means of offering his support”, she wrote.

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Biden, 76, is mulling a third White House run and is widely reported to be close to announcing.

Carter wrote her post days after Lucy Flores, a former Nevada state assemblywoman, wrote an essay for the Cut in which she recounted an encounter with Biden in 2014 that she said made her uncomfortable. Flores wrote that Biden touched her shoulders, leaned in to smell her hair and kissed the back of her head, conduct she found to be a violation of her personal space.

On Sunday, asked about Biden’s presidential ambitions, Flores told CNN such behavior should be “disqualifying”.

Biden issued a statement of his own, saying that in “many years on the campaign trail and in public life, I have offered countless handshakes, hugs, expressions of affection, support and comfort. And not once – never – did I believe I acted inappropriately. If it is suggested I did so, I will listen respectfully. But it was never my intention.”

Other Democratic presidential hopefuls expressed support for Flores. Aides to Donald Trump were critical of Biden’s behavior, their own boss’s vexed history of allegations of sexual misconduct notwithstanding.

On Monday, a second woman said Biden had acted inappropriately, touching her face with both hands and rubbing noses with her in 2009.

Amy Lappos, a former aide to the Democratic representative, Jim Hines of Connecticut, told the Associated Press that she and other Himes aides were helping at a fundraiser in a private home in Hartford in October 2009 when Biden entered the kitchen to thank the group. “After he finished speaking, he stopped to talk to us about how important a congressional staff is, which I thought was awesome.”

Lappos, 43, said she was stunned as Biden moved toward her. “He wrapped both his hands around my face and pulled me in. I thought: ‘Oh, God, he’s going to kiss me.’ Instead, he rubbed noses with me.”

She said Biden said nothing then moved off. The experience had left her feeling “weird and uncomfortable” and was “absolutely disrespectful of my personal boundaries”.

Meanwhile a spokesman for Biden said photos purporting to show inappropriate behavior by the former vice-president were part of a smear campaign led by “rightwing trolls”.

“These smears and forgeries have existed in the dark recesses of the internet for a while,” Bill Russo said. “And to this day, rightwing trolls and others continue to exploit them for their own gain.”

Biden’s tendency to get close to women in public has long been dismissed as part of his friendly nature. But his behavior has come under renewed focus as a result of the #MeToo movement. Numerous photos have circulated in which he is seen with his arms around women’s waists or pulling them close and whispering.

On Monday, Russo criticized the media for establishing a supposed pattern in Biden’s behavior by circulating images of his interactions with women without first confirming that the individuals in the photos were ever uncomfortable.

Another widely shared image showed Biden leaning towards the 13-year-old daughter of the Delaware senator Chris Coons at his swearing-in ceremony in 2015 and kissing the side of her head.

Coons told the Washington Post his family is extremely close to the Bidens, and that his children see the former vice-president as a grandfather figure.

“She did not think of it as anything,” Coons said. “All three of my kids have known Joe their whole lives.”

In her Medium post, Carter said the image in her case was “a still shot taken from a video – misleadingly extracted from what was a longer moment between close friends – sent out in a snarky tweet – came to be the lasting image of that day.”

Carter also said Flores had the right to “speak her truth”.

“She should be, like all women, believed,” Carter wrote. “But her story is not mine. The Joe Biden in my picture is a close friend helping someone get through a big day, for which I will always be grateful.”