Latinos for Trump release ‘Despacito’ video, highlight inappropriate touching allegations against Biden

The campaign group Latinos for Trump on Wednesday tweeted an ad bringing attention to previous claims of inappropriate touching by Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden using the Spanish-language pop song “Despacito,” referencing a Tuesday address the nominee gave at a Hispanic Heritage Month celebration in Florida. 

“Actually, ‘Despacito’ is the perfect song for Joe Biden,” the group said in a tweet, along with a video that begins with Biden playing the hit song from his phone after being introduced at the campaign event by the song’s singer, Luis Fonsi. 

The video then includes footage of Biden putting his arms over women at public events, along with lyrics of the song translated into English: “I want to breathe slowly on your neck” and “let me whisper in your ear.” 

Actually, “Despacito” is the perfect song for Joe Biden. pic.twitter.com/Chq90Hm49r

— Equipo Trump – Text VAMOS to 88022 (@EquipoTrump) September 16, 2020

The ad then cuts to a previous CNN interview with Lucy Flores, a former Nevada state legislator who accused Biden of inappropriate touching at an event in 2014. 

In the interview, Flores said that at the event, she could “feel Joe Biden put his hands on my shoulders, get up very close to me from behind, lean in, smell my hair and then plant a slow kiss on the top of my head.” 

After more women came forward with similar claims in 2019, Biden released a video in which he did not directly apologize for his past behavior, but said he would be more mindful of women’s personal space. 

“Social norms have begun to change, they’ve shifted, and the boundaries of protecting personal space have been reset, and I get it,” he said in the video. “I hear what they’re saying. I understand it. I’ll be much more mindful. That’s my responsibility, and I’ll meet it.”

Wednesday’s ad from Latinos for Trump, the official Latino coalition of President Trump’s reelection campaign, includes a video of Biden with Stephanie Carter, the wife of former Defense Secretary Ash Carter. However, Stephanie Carter came to Biden’s defense after an image from her husband’s swearing-in ceremony was used to suggest Biden violated her boundaries. 

“After the swearing in, as Ash was giving remarks, [Biden] leaned in to tell me ‘thank you for letting him do this’ and kept his hands on my shoulders as a means of offering his support,” Carter wrote in a March 2019 Medium post. “But a still shot taken from a video — misleadingly extracted from what was a longer moment between close friends — sent out in a snarky tweet — came to be the lasting image of that day.”

“I won’t pretend that this will be the last of that picture, but it will be the last of other people speaking for me,” Carter added. 

The Latinos for Trump ad comes after President Trump retweeted a doctored video on Wednesday that made it seem like Biden had played the NWA song “F— tha Police” at the Florida event. Twitter flagged the video as “manipulated media.”