Never? Not even when those stories made national news? That’s the story Jill Biden’s sticking with today on ABC’s Good Morning America, making a campaign appearance with her husband. Times have changed, Jill Biden allowed, but a lot of this is because people come to Joe “looking for comfort or empathy”:

Dr. Biden defended her husband, saying that in the 44 years she’s known him, she’s never heard negative stories.

“I think what you don’t realize is how many people approach Joe. Men and women, looking for comfort or empathy,” she said. “But going forward, I think he’s gonna have to judge — be a better judge — of when people approach him, how he’s going to react. That he maybe shouldn’t approach them.”

She said she had also experienced past situations where she felt men had invaded her space, and did not speak up, but that things are different now.

“I just sorta stepped aside. I didn’t address it. I — like you said — I mean, things have changed. There was a time when women were afraid to speak out,” Dr. Biden said. “I can remember specifically it was in a job interview … if that same thing happened today, I’d turn around and say, “What do you think you’re doin’?” So I think it’s– it’s totally different.”

Er … how many of these women and young girls were “approaching” Joe, “looking for comfort or empathy”? And how many of them just happened to be within arms’ reach? The Daily Caller put together this 98-second greatest-hits package in November 2017, but there are plenty of others on YouTube that are longer and older. Even the Young Turks goofed on it in 2015:

That makes claims of ignorance a little tough to buy. Not only has this been chatter for years in the media and in the Beltway, after the #MeToo eruption in 2017, it became a clear liability for an old-school pol like Biden. And yet we’re to believe it never came up? Please.

For his part, Biden says you can teach an old dog new tricks:

“I’ve always thought that part of leadership, part of politics was listening to people, hearing them, making them feel comfortable,” Biden told Roberts Monday. “It’s my responsibility to be more sensitive to whether or not someone wants me to reassure them or wants to say hello or wants to show affection and support. And that’s my responsibility.”

Biden could well be correct in thinking that showing growth is all he needs. If no more serious allegations emerge, such as clearly sexual groping and/or harassment in a Biden office, then this act of feigned contrition will probably suffice, at least in the general election. If the primaries get bloody enough, the women running against him could still make it a big issue, especially with his non-apology apology and his poking fun at the allegations almost immediately afterward. In a general election, though, Biden would be running against Donald “Grab ’em by the p****” Trump, at which point all of the #MeToo outrage would get negated … for both men.