Former Vice President Joe Biden's campaign-to-be has launched an all-out defense of conduct some women have said made them physically uncomfortable, claiming news media misinterpreted some photos and others are Photoshopped fakes.

Allegations have mounted in the past week of inappropriate contact, threatening to end Biden's 2020 White House hopes before a formal campaign gets off the ground.

Spokesman Bill Russo said Monday in a lengthy statement that the women involved now say nothing unseemly happened, and argued that right-wing antagonists purposefully concocted photos designed to turn up the temperature of outrage.

'These smears and forgeries have existed in the dark recesses of the internet for a while. And to this day, right wing trolls and others continue to exploit them for their own gain,' Russo claimed.

A Trump supporter posted a crudely touched-up photo Sunday on Twitter, appearing to depict Biden groping the breast of Stephanie Carter, former Defense Secretary Ash Carter's wife, with his right hand during Mr. Carter's swearing-in ceremony. In the original picture, both of Biden's hands are visible on the woman's shoulders.

Joe Biden's spokesman complained Monday about Photoshopped images like this one, which shows the former vice president groping Stephanie Carter while her husband Ash was sworn in as secretary of Defense in February 2015

In the original news photo of Carter's first speech as the Pentagon chief, Biden's hands are both on Mrs. Carter's shoulders. She blogged that she was not uncomfortable and Biden is a close friend

Biden spokesman Bill Russo also complains about unedited pictures that show his boss nuzzling women in public and otherwise invading their personal space. Chris Conns' daughter Maggie, 13, was with her father when Biden swore in the Delaware senator in January 2015

Biden has acquired the nickname 'Creepy Uncle Joe' for his habit of crossing the line between kind and handsy. He leaned in to a kiss with Chuck Grassley's wife Barbara when swearing in the Iowa senator in January 2017

Hand position: This was the meeting with Lucy Flores (right) which she wrote about for New York magazine - and at which Biden posed with both her and Eva Longoria, putting his hand high on her chest

Nuzzling: Biden put his hands on the shoulders of this woman at the Cruisers Diner in Seaman, Ohio, during a September 2012 campaign stop. She had moved his chair in front of the bench where he was sitting between two other bikers

The tweet juxtaposed the phony Biden photo with a genuine one depicting former Minnesota Sen. Al Franken groping a model during a military flight back to the U.S. following a USO benefit concert. That picture led to Franken's resignation from Congress.

In a more pointed example of a deceptively edited photo, Biden was pictured in an animated conversation, wagging his finger at a Florida town hall attendee during the 2008 presidential campaign season.

A Photoshopped version that has circulated on social media since 2012 replaces Biden's arm with a phony one holding a gun, which is extended into the woman's mouth.

Russo also provided a link to a cropped picture of the former vice president appearing to clamp his hand over the mouth of his grieving grandson at Beau Biden's 2015 funeral. The original news photo provides context, showing a comforting embrace.

Republicans are calling Biden 'Creepy Uncle Joe,' hoping to end his hopes of unseating President Donald Trump, after a week that saw two women accuse him of touching them improperly in past years.

A Greenwich, Connecticut woman told The Hartford Courant that her uncomfortable, nonconsensual moment happened at a 2009 fundraiser for Democratic Congressman Jim Himes when Biden was the sitting vice president.

YOU'VE GOT IT ALL WRONG AND BIDEN'S THE VICTIM HERE, SAYS HIS SPOKESMAN (BUT JOE ISN'T ADDRESSING HANDSY BEHAVIOR IN PERSON) Joe Biden spokesman Bill Russo issued a statement on April 1, 2019 defending the former U.S. vice president against allegations of improperly touching women during his years in office: 'In the coverage so far of Lucy Flores’ essay in New York Magazine, reports have made repeated references to supposedly similar, well-documented instances in which the Vice President crossed a line between affectionate or supportive behavior and something—however unintentional—more inappropriate or unwelcome. One such instance involved Stephanie Carter, the wife of former Defense Secretary Ash Carter, and the other Senator Chris Coons’ daughter. Each was ostensibly captured by a photo that some have interpreted in a way that is reflected consistently, and without scrutiny, in the reporting.Ms. Flores herself has cited the Carter photo as an example of the behavior she experienced. 'Here’s the problem: in neither case is the often repeated and recirculated interpretation true. Both Stephanie Carter and Senator Coons have now felt compelled to speak out to put these ugly urban legends to rest. 'As Stephanie Carter relates her own experience, she had a fall earlier in the day of her husband’s swearing-in as Defense Secretary and was “uncharacteristically nervous.” Sensing that she was ill at ease, the Vice President gave her a hug and later, thanking her for her encouragement of her husband in this new and demanding phase of his career, “kept his hands on my shoulders as a means of offering his support.” She writes that the infamous photo “was misleadingly extracted from what was a longer moment between close friends—sent out in a snarky tweet.” Ms. Carter is now reclaiming her story—the true one. 'Senator Coons has reclaimed his daughter’s story. The Washington Post has now reported an interview with the Senator in which he states that his daughter, who has known Vice President Biden all her life, views him as a “grandfather figure.” Mr. Biden was whispering “praise for her composure and offering to connect her with his own daughter so that they could talk about the challenges of having fathers in the political spotlight. She was not bothered, the Senator told the Post; “she did not think of it as anything.” 'So, one now-fabled photo was, in fact, “misleadingly extracted” from a consoling “moment between close friends,” and the other captured a grandfatherly word of praise and offer of support for the daughter of long-time friends of the Biden family. In other words, the familiar characterizations of these two photos that have been uncritically perpetuated, turn out to be very false. The Carter and Coons accounts are not “updates” of old stories: they are corrections of false ones. 'And they are not the only ones. There are other, even more insidious examples of claims about the Vice President that have no foundation: the use of photoshopped images and other manipulations of social media. Perhaps most galling of all, a cropped photo of the Vice President comforting his grandson outside of his son Beau’s funeral has been used to further this false narrative. 'These smears and forgeries have existed in the dark recesses of the internet for a while. And to this day, right wing trolls and others continue to exploit them for their own gain. 'The Vice President has issued a statement affirming that in all the many years in public life that he has shaken a hand, given or received a hug, or laid his hand on a shoulder to express concern, support; or reassurance, he never intended to cause discomfort. He has said that he believes that women who have experience any such discomfort, regardless of intention, should speak and be heard, and that he will be among those who listen. 'But the important conversation about these issues are not advanced, nor are any criticisms of Vice President Biden validated, by the continued misrepresentation of the Carter and Coons moments, or a failure to be vigilant about a cottage industry of lies.' Advertisement

This image has circulated on social media for years, but it's completely fake

In the actual picture, the then-senator got into a heated discussion with a Florida woman at a town hall event while he was campaigning for Barack Obama in 2008

'It wasn't sexual, but he did grab me by the head,' said Amy Lappos, 43. 'He put his hand around my neck and pulled me in to rub noses with me. When he was pulling me in, I thought he was going to kiss me on the mouth.'

Lappos' story amplified claims by White House adviser Kellyanne Conway and others that Biden should be disqualified from holding the presidency.

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi played defense on Tuesday, acknowledging that Biden should give people more personal space but arguing that he shouldn't be drummed out of the White House race.

'I don't think it's disqualifying,' she told Politico. 'He has to understand in the world that we're in now that people's space is important to them, and what's important is how they receive it and not necessarily how you intended it.'

The recent news cycles about Biden began with a complaint from a former Nevada state lawmaker who claimed Biden nuzzled the back of her head and made a point of smelling her hair during a public campaign event.

Lucy Flores said he also kissed her on the head and put his hands on her shoulders before she went onstage.

'I felt two hands on my shoulders. I froze. Why is the vice-president of the United States touching me?' Flores wrote. 'I felt him get closer to me from behind. He leaned further in and inhaled my hair. I was mortified. I thought to myself, "I didn't wash my hair today and the vice-president of the United States is smelling it. And also, what in the actual f**k?"'

When the faked image of Biden was circulated online this past weekend, it was tweeted alongside a genuine picture of former Democratic Sen. Al Franken groping an entertainer after a USO show

'He proceeded to plant a big slow kiss on the back of my head,' she recalled. 'My brain couldn't process what was happening. I was embarrassed. I was shocked. I was confused.'

Flores has not claimed Biden sexually assaulted her. She told CNN that she merely wants to bring attention to what she sees as a whitewashing of Biden's contact with women.

She felt 'uneasy, gross, and confused,' she said.

Amy Lappos, 43, says she felt uncomfortable when Joe Biden touched her at a fundraising event in 2009

'This isn't the first time and wasn't the only incident where he was acting inappropriately with women,' Flores said on the 'State of the Union' program. 'There's been documentation in photos, videos, stories that were written.'

'You don't expect that kind of intimate behavior from someone so powerful and someone who you just have no relationship whatsoever to, to touch you and feel you and be so close to you in that way,' she said.

Appearing on 'Fox News Sunday,' Conway said, 'I think Joe Biden has a big problem here. Because he calls it an affection and handshake but his party calls it inappropriate.'

'But all of these post-#MeToo allegations and insinuations really don't comport with probably Joe Biden's conduct over the years. If anybody just types in 'Creepy Uncle Joe," videos you come up with a treasure trove.'

Russo complained Monday about Flores' references to documented instances of untoward behavior that 'crossed a line between affectionate or supportive behavior and something—however unintentional—more inappropriate or unwelcome.'

He griped about photos of Biden with Stephanie Carter and Sen. Chris Coons' daughter Maggie. The latter was a cringe-inducing moment because of the then-13-year-old girl's facial expression.

Taken out of context and cropped, the former VP was accused of touching a child inappropriately by some social media users in the above photo. The child is his grandson and it was taken at Biden's son's funeral in 2015

'Each was ostensibly captured by a photo that some have interpreted in a way that is reflected consistently, and without scrutiny, in the reporting. Ms. Flores herself has cited the Carter photo as an example of the behavior she experienced,' he said.

'Here's the problem: in neither case is the often repeated and recirculated interpretation true. Both Stephanie Carter and Senator Coons have now felt compelled to speak out to put these ugly urban legends to rest.'

Carter and Coons, a Delaware Democrat, have defended Biden in statements on the incidents.

'She did not think of it as anything,' he told The Washington Post. 'All three of my kids have known Joe their whole lives.'

In a Medium post, Stephanie Carter said the image of Biden's hands on her shoulders while her husband was being sworn in as defense secretary has been taken out of context.

She wrote that she didn't appreciate the attention generated by news coverage of a photo 'misleadingly extracted from what was a longer moment between close friends.'

Biden himself said Sunday that the 'countless handshakes, hugs, expressions of affection, support and comfort' that he's provided as a friend and public servant over the years.

'And not once - never - did I believe I acted inappropriately,' he said. 'If it is suggested I did so, I will listen respectfully. But it was never my intention.'

He said he may not 'recall these moments the same way' that the women do.'

'But we have arrived at an important time when women feel they can and should relate their experiences, and men should pay attention. And I will. I will also remain the strongest advocate I can be for the rights of women,' the former vice president said. 'I will fight to build on the work I've done in my career to end violence against women and ensure women are treated with the equality they deserve.'