Barack Obama’s close, nearly brotherly friendship with Joe Biden is the stuff of meme legend. It’s perhaps surprising, then, that the former president has mostly remained silent as women accuse his former vice president of inappropriate touching—allegations that could weigh on Biden’s expected 2020 bid. Other establishment politicians, from Dianne Feinstein to Lindsey Graham, have defended the notoriously handsy ex-veep, with Democratic brass calling on Biden to keep his hands to himself (“Pretend you have a cold and I have a cold,” Nancy Pelosi remarked at a breakfast this week), but saying that the allegations are not disqualifying. But Obama, who has been careful in choosing when to throw his weight around, has so far remained on the sidelines.

Initially, those close to Biden indicated to my colleague Chris Smith that Obama’s even-handed approach to the 2020 field had ruffled the former veep’s feathers. (“This is unequivocally false,” a Biden spokesperson said at the time.) But this time around, Obama’s reticence is probably the best outcome for Biden, who’s done his best to brush off the allegations. Obama “thinks the world of [Biden] and thinks he’d be an excellent president,” and is standing by him through the controversy, a source close to the former president told The Hill Thursday. Moreover, “Joe Biden would be the first to tell you that he’ll have to earn the nomination on his own.”

Biden’s trouble began last week, when Nevada Democrat Lucy Flores wrote an essay describing how he kissed the back of her head at a campaign event in 2014. Several women have since come forward to say Biden made them similarly uncomfortable, and calling his behavior “demeaning.” Biden attempted to address the allegations in a video posted to Twitter this week, in which he acknowledged that “social norms have begun to change,” and promised to be more “mindful” about others’ personal space. Yet at an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers conference on Friday, Biden seemingly poked fun at the rash of stories. “I just want you to know I had permission to hug Lonnie [Stephenson],” he joked, referring to the union president who introduced him. “By the way, he gave me permission to touch him,” Biden then said of a boy he hugged on stage. “Everybody knows I like kids more than people.” According to reporters at the event, the largely male crowd responded with laughter.

Whether this kind of brush-off will fly with the rest of the Democratic electorate remains to be seen. Biden continues to lead early polls, though his standing has dipped somewhat since Flores went public. His opponents could easily weaponize the claims against him, something Donald Trump has done already. “WELCOME BACK JOE!” the president tweeted on Thursday, along with a doctored video of Biden. Asked Friday if he—the guy who told Billy Bush that his celebrity allowed him to “grab [women] by the pussy”—was the right person to take Biden to task, Trump said he was a “very good messenger.” “People got a kick out of it,” he told reporters, unabashed.

Unlike Trump, a source told The Hill Thursday, Obama “does not want to influence public opinion” on the matter. That’s probably a smart move, as it keeps the former president from being dragged into a contentious debate. It’s also beneficial to the former vice president; any intervention by Obama would likely make allegations appear more serious than the Biden camp has sought to portray them. “He realizes that he breathes so much air into every situation,” the Hill’s source said. “And I think he realizes that he would have to walk a bit of a fine line on this. Anything he says would cut against Joe Biden.”

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