WASHINGTON _ Joe Biden waited less than a minute before he alluded to the controversy that threatens to undermine him should he run for president.
"I just want you to know, I had permission to hug Lonnie," Biden said at the start of his speech in Washington Friday, referring to the president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Lonnie Stephenson, who had introduced him.
The remark drew laughs from a few thousand of the gathered union members, coming just two days after the former vice president �� in response to a series of accusations that he made women feel uncomfortable with how he touched them �� promised to change his behavior. But to many in the Democratic Party, the issue, which highlights the 76-year-old Biden's generational challenge in a young and diverse party, is serious enough to imperil Biden's candidacy before it even begins.
Meanwhile, much of the Democratic presidential field descended on a hotel in New York, pitching their candidacies to a gathering of the National Action Network, a civil rights organization founded by the Rev. Al Sharpton.
They didn't go out of their way to draw contrasts with Biden, but his deliberations �� and his controversies �� were unmistakably part of the backdrop against which the conference unfolded this week.
"Vice President Biden's got to make some serious decisions about his candidacy," said Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, who had himself considered running for president. Those remarks came in response to a question about whether Biden had sufficiently answered to the women who expressed discomfort with him. "Let him and voters decide," Brown said. It's not for me to say whether those remarks are sufficient or not."
Over the past week, a number of women have said Biden's tactile approach to engaging and campaigning �� sometimes an unsolicited kiss on the head or an unwanted shoulder grip �� made them uncomfortable. And many of the officials and lawmakers at the conference this week were peppered with questions about Biden.
"We need to listen to those who are raising their stories, who have the courage to come forward to share their experience," candidate Beto O'Rourke of Texas said this week on the sidelines of the convention. "Ultimately that's going to be a decision for him to make, but I'm glad that people are willing to and have the courage to step up. They must be heard and listened to."
Back in Washington, Biden denied after his speech that he meant to make light of the accusations against him, saying he understood that he needed consent before touching anybody.
But asked if he was sorry about the incidents, he offered only a qualified apology.
"I'm sorry I didn't understand more," Biden said. 'I'm not sorry for any of my intentions."
The comments were similar to ones he released Wednesday in a video, in which he said he would conduct himself differently but did not apologize to any of the women who have accused him of making them feel uncomfortable.
The controversy threatens to distract Biden, who reiterated Friday that he was close to making an announcement about a presidential candidacy, from his core message.
In his speech to the IBEW, Biden offered what could have been a preview of his stump speech, recalling his blue-collar roots while bemoaning that the country had forgotten how working men and women were the true heart of the country.
"This country was not built by Wall Street bankers and CEOs and hedge-fund managers," Biden said, though he was quick to add that many of them are still good people. "It was built by the great American middle class."
The New York conference began Wednesday, the same day Biden released the video promising to improve his behavior. It drew presidential candidates including O'Rourke, Sens. Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand and Amy Klobuchar; former Housing Secretary Julian Castro; and former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper among others.
Many signaled support for a bill calling for the study of reparations. They urged criminal justice reform and higher pay for teachers and more affordable housing. Candidates nodded to Stacey Abrams, the former candidate for Georgia governor whose narrow loss, some of her supporters argue, was affected by voter suppression.
"Massive voter suppression prevented Stacey Abrams from becoming the rightful governor of Georgia," Warren said. Abrams appeared at the conference earlier in the week and got a celebrity's welcome as she teased a future run for office.
But in the hallways, Biden's controversy was a leading topic of conversation. And he had plenty of defenders at the heavily African American National Action Network.
"We're in a time when social norms are changing and adjusting, and I think for someone like Joe Biden, who has a long history, and a long public record, the voters will take the good with the bad," said Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League. "They'll evaluate those allegations in the context of his candidacy should he become a candidate."
Pastor John A. Heath of Phoenix sat in a hallway a floor below the speeches earlier this week, engaged in a heated discussion with Glenda Jones of New York over the accusations facing Biden.
Heath, 49, and Jones, 72, were in vehement agreement that the criticisms Biden faces come from a different generation �� but that they don't share those concerns.
"He can apologize if (they) felt encroached upon," Heath said. "I don't think we need to throw him out because he loves people."
Jones agreed: "It's very clear it wasn't sexual in orientation. It's a difference in generations how we were raised."
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(Glueck reported from New York.)
