Vice President Joe Biden "can't keep … his hands to himself," former Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., told Larry King on Tuesday.
During an interview on Ora's "PoliticKING with Larry King," Frank was blunt when asked about the current vice president.
"He can't keep his mouth shut or his hands to himself," Frank said. "It's out of good intentions, but I think he has unfortunately diminished people's perceptions of his abilities."
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Frank did say Biden is "talented" and a "very bright guy" with "very good values," but he has essentially given people the wrong idea about who he really is. That, hinted Frank, has hurt Biden's chances of being successful at running for president should he choose to enter the 2016 race.
Biden
was criticized for getting a bit too close to Defense Secretary Ash Carter's wife during a swearing-in ceremony in February. That wasn't the first time Biden has nuzzled up to women during his career,
pointed out critics, who wonder if his behavior has gone too far.
Frank, the first openly gay member of Congress, did praise Biden regarding his view on Iraq.
"Early on, he said — correctly, people dismissed him — we ought to divide Iraq into three sections: a Sunni section, a Shia section, and a Kurdish section. People said, 'no, no no,'" Frank said. "That was the best idea and they should do it still. It's happening de facto."
Biden has served as President Barack Obama's vice president since the former took office in 2009. Before that, Biden was a senator from Delaware for 36 years.
Biden has been mentioned as a potential candidate for president in next year's election, but he
doesn't have much support in polls and experts rarely bring up his name when discussing the possible front-runners in the race for the Democrat nomination, which is expected to be Hillary Clinton.
A new group launched an effort
called Draft Biden last week that it hopes will drum up support for a White House run.
When
asked last month if he would join the presidential race, Biden said, "Yes, there's a chance. But I haven't made my mind up about that. We got a lot of work to do between now and then. There's plenty of time."
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