Photo: Joe Biden/Twitter
Not just once, twice or three times — or even a dozen: No, according to a tongue-in-cheek reportpublished Tuesday inThe Washington Post, former Vice PresidentJoe Bidenhas been popping up all over online dating profiles in the Washington, D.C., area.
The form of his appearances can vary, per thePost.Sometimes it’s in joint selfies with dating app users and, in others, it’s a playful mention of a Biden-esque ethos (“Trying to be the Bidenest I can be”). In one 23-year-old user’s case, he used a photo of a youthful Biden because, he said, he’d been told the two look alike.
“It was a likable joke to have at the end there,” the user, Andreas Elterich, told thePost. “I’m not trying to trick people. It’s a conversation-starter.”
Another user who spoke to the paper, a 20-something named Max (first name only), also includes Biden in his profile.
“He’s really fun-loving — and in me, he brings out my natural smile,” Max said. “I hope people find that attractive.”
“When I put the Biden picture up, my mentality was: I’m a 22-year-old and I got to meet the vice president. But I will date a Republican, I will date a liberal,” said Fontanez, who according to thePosthas also taken photos with House SpeakerNancy Pelosiand PresidentDonald Trump.
ThePost‘s Leigh Giangreco, who explored the Biden dating-profile phenomenon, said she personally came across him a “mind-boggling” amount of times in various dating profiles — at least 11.
RELATED VIDEO: Joe Biden’s Brother Jim — ‘Our Family Will Not Be Broken’
Giangreco linked Biden’s local popularity with what his public persona (“pleasant and cool, if a little vanilla for some”) means in such polarizing times, especially in the nation’s capital. As one relationship expert told her: “People’s identity has become very intertwined to politics and especially in D.C.”
Another dynamic is almost surely at work: Biden has remained so public in part because he is widely believed to be preparing another bid for the presidency.
Last weektheWall Street Journalreportedthat he “told at least a half-dozen supporters … he intends to run for president.” (Still, according theJournal, “People around him caution[ed] that he could change his mind.”)
In December,Biden said he would make a decision about runningwithin two months.
“I’ll be as straight with you as I can: I think I’m the most qualified person in the country to be president,” he said then, during a December appearance at the University of Montana. “The issues that we face as a country today are the issues that have been in my wheelhouse, that I’ve worked on my whole life.”
Despite an official announcement, Biden has been maneuvering as though he will be challenging President Trump.
On Tuesday night he reportedly addressed his central role in giving a public hearing for Anita Hill, who in the ’90s accused Clarence Thomas, then a nominee for the Supreme Court, of sexual harassment. Thomas has always vigorously denied Hill’s account.
“To this day I regret I couldn’t come up with a way to give her the kind of hearing she deserved. I wish I could have done something.”
source: people.com
