In a speech on Friday celebrating women's leadership for the Democratic National Committee, Vice President Joe Biden praised former Oregon Republican Sen. Bob Packwood, who resigned in 1995 after sexual-harassment allegations by as many as 10 former female staffers and lobbyists.
Biden, who is considering a White House run in 2016, mentioned Packwood and former Maryland GOP Sen. Mac Mathias in bemoaning the current lack of bipartisanship and compromise among Republicans and Democrats in Congress.
His comments were reported by numerous news organizations, including
Mediaite and
Business Insider.
"It was Republicans that were involved," Biden said. "Guys like Mac Mathias and Packwood and so many others. It wasn't Democrats alone.
"Republicans were the sponsors of the raises of the minimum wage," the vice president continued. "I could go on and on.
"I'm not joking: This is not your father's Republican Party, or your mother's Republican Party."
Biden made the comments at the DNC's Women’s Leadership Forum Breakfast at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Washington.
Shortly after Packwood was re-elected to a fifth Senate term in 1992,
The Washington Post detailed complaints from the 10 women. He and his wife had divorced in 1991 after 27 years of marriage.
Packwood, now 82, resigned in 1995 under threat of expulsion by the Senate.
The remark topped off two days of gaffes by Biden, including a tasteless reference to his wife, use of the term "Shylocks" —
considered anti-Semitic by some Jewish groups — and saying that a politician in Singapore considered as "the wisest man in the orient."
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