Freshly-minted candidate for president Joe Biden appeared today on a segment of ABC‘s “The View” to discuss his run for president, why he decided to throw his hat into the ring, and to address some of the issues that have been brought up about his political history.

As is standard for most Democrats who appear on the show, the segment with Biden was mostly friendly. But several of the co-hosts including Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin tried to push Biden to say he was sorry for his #MeToo moments as well as for how he treated Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings.

It didn’t go so well:

But Biden refused to apologize. In a long, rambling answer [to co-host Sunny Hostin], he began with: “Look, here’s the deal, I have to be and everybody has to be, much more aware of the private space of men and women…I’m much more cognizant of that.” He went on to claim that many people have expressed they appreciated his touchiness. But Hostin pressed again.“They have said that but they have also said they’d like an apology,” she urged. Clearly frustrated, he struggled to find the right words, finally saying he was “really sorry that they, what I did in talking to them, trying to console, that in fact, they took it a different way.”

Watch the segment below:

.@JoeBiden addresses inappropriate touching allegations, saying it’s his “responsibility … to be more aware”: “I’m sorry this happened, but I’m not sorry in the sense that I think I did anything that was intentionally designed to do anything wrong or be inappropriate.” pic.twitter.com/tjVBYya408 — The View (@TheView) April 26, 2019

On the Anita Hill issue, Newsbusters also noted that co-host Joy Behar was pleading for Biden to apologize so that they could “clean this up” and move on:

“So here’s your opportunity right now to just say, apologize, say you’re sorry. I think we can clean this up, right now!” Behar begged. But Biden again insisted he had apologized already and shrugged off any responsibility. “I’m sorry she was treated the way she was treated. I wish we could have figure out a better way to get this done,” he stated, before trying to spin the situation in a positive way, saying she inspired the #MeToo movement and the Violence Against Women Act. But Behar was determined to get Biden in the clear with the Democrats. She practically wrote his apology for him, urging, “You know what I think she wants you to say, is ‘I’m sorry for the way I treated you.’ Not for the way you were treated. I think that would be closer,” she pleaded him to try again.

But again, he wouldn’t. Watch the segment below:

"Since I had publicly apologized for the way she was treated…I didn't want to, quote, invade her space," Joe Biden says on why he only recently called Anita Hill. "I was grateful she took my call." https://t.co/rxCXj3uvWG pic.twitter.com/hmg3YBVOa0 — The View (@TheView) April 26, 2019

I think it’s important to note that in spite of the fact that Biden was grilled during these segments, it wasn’t done out of a desire to “expose” anything nefarious about him (unlike how it would be if a Republican was sitting in that hot seat). The purpose in Behar’s and Hostin’s determination to get him to apologize was to make him appear more attractive to Democratic, middle of the road, and women voters by getting him to act properly contrite.

Plus, he’ll get these questions during the Democratic debates, so they helped him a little with debate prep as well.

If he answers these questions during the debate in the same way, watch for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY-14) Justice Dems to pounce and seize on Biden’s remarks. They’re on record as not supporting his primary run, and they are going to pull out all the stops to defeat him in favor of a more socialistic candidate like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT):

This is emblematic of Joe Biden's politics. As a centrist, he makes poor decisions that he ends up regretting years later: Anita Hill and positions he took on desegregation, Iraq, gay marriage, abortion, and crime. I assume he'll end up apologizing in a few months — or years. https://t.co/Ir1HasdDBH — Waleed Shahid (@_waleedshahid) April 26, 2019

Stay tuned.

—————————–

—Sister Toldjah is a former liberal and a 15+ year veteran of blogging with an emphasis on media bias, social issues, and the culture wars. Read her Red State archives here. Connect with her on Twitter.–