Joe Biden faces backlash after ‘sniffing’ child in 'odd' incident

President Joe Biden has received criticism for an interaction with a young girl at Helsinki Airport that some have branded as “odd”.

The President was leaving Helsinki on Friday (14 July) but before boarding Air-Force One, he met with embassy staff and their families.

A clip captured by Fox shows Biden interacting with a mother and her young daughter. The President is seen trying to mess around and make the young girl laugh by pretending to bite her and placing his mouth on her shoulder. Others say the President also sniffed the girls hair, whilst some claim he tried to kiss the girl’s cheek.

The girl’s mother appears to find the funny side but the child attempts to wriggle away from the President whilst the mother takes a selfie with Biden.

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Republicans were quick to capitalise on the video.

Rep. Matt Gaetz called the interaction “quite strange”. Whilst Donald Trump Jr Tweeted: “Biden should be in a nursing home, not leading the free world.”

This is not the first time Biden has been accused of sniffing someone’s hair. Earlier this month a digitally altered video of Biden seemingly sniffing a baby garnered a lot of attention, and it was quickly clarified.

Twitter has since added a community note to that video adding context that states: “This is a doctored video of Biden visiting with a soldier’s wife and baby.” The note also contains a like to the original video on TikTok, where Biden simply makes some nosies in the babies ear before taking a selfie with the soldier’s family.

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