President Joe Biden spoke out on Wednesday to gush over a former Democratic senator who has been accused of sexual misconduct in the past. Despite this, Biden still praised him as “one of the finest men I’ve ever served with.”’

“I understand the senior senator from this state for a long time, Chris Dodd is here,” Biden said while giving a commencement address at the Coast Guard Academy. “Where is Chris? Welcome, pal. One of the finest men I’ve ever served with in my whole career.”

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Biden was referring to Chris Dodd, who served as a Democratic senator from 1981 to 2011, according to Fox News. During that time, he was accused of being involved in a sexual assault incident along with Ted Kennedy, who served as Democratic senator from Massachusetts from 1962 until 2009.

Former Washington D.C. waitress Carla Gavliglio claimed that she was sexually assaulted by the two men in the restaurant that she worked at back in 1985, with the allegations coming to light five years later. She claimed that the two lawmakers were intoxicated in a private room of the establishment when Kennedy shoved her onto Dodd’s lap and rubbed his genitals against her until other staffers intervened when she began to scream. The claim was corroborated by other workers at the restaurant.

Though Gavliglio said last year that Kennedy deserved most of the blame, she still felt that Dodd was partially responsible.

“Most of it was on Senator Kennedy, but God, would it have killed [Dodd] to say, ‘I’m so sorry about what happened last night, I really apologize’? That would have been nice. It certainly would have been appropriate,” she said.

In her memoir “Shockaholic,” actress Carrie Fisher of “Star Wars” fame claimed that she went on a group date in 1985 with Dodd, and Kennedy was there as well. During this date, she alleged that Kennedy asked her inappropriate questions like “Do you think you’ll be having sex with Chris at the end of your date?” and “‘Would you have sex with Chris in a hot tub?” she added that Dodd had an “unusual grin hanging on his flushed face.”

Bill Thomas, writer of the “Heard on the Hill” column for Roll Call, said in 1990 that Kennedy and Dodd were like “two guys in a fraternity who have been loosed upon the world.”

It should be noted that Dodd played a major role in steering Biden’s selection committee when he was in the market for a vice president.