--- title: Joe Biden Talks Changing Sexual Assault Culture on Fallon description: During an interview on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, Vice President Biden expressed his disdain for rape and sexual assault. canonical: https://time.com/4514609/joe-biden-change-sexual-assault-culture/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-30T18:06:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:03:29.940Z og:title: Joe Biden Is on a Mission to Change Sexual Assault Culture og:description: 'We can change the culture here. No means no' og:url: https://time.com/4514609/joe-biden-change-sexual-assault-culture/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d82124e16667096/6988a839bc6cfc0a823dec22/joe-biden-sexual-assault-culture.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: UN-GENERAL ASSEMBLY-US-FRANCE og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Joe Biden Is on a Mission to Change Sexual Assault Culture twitter:description: 'We can change the culture here. No means no' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d82124e16667096/6988a839bc6cfc0a823dec22/joe-biden-sexual-assault-culture.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Joe Biden Is on a Mission to Change Sexual Assault Culture by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Sep 30, 2016 6:06 PM UTC  US Vice President Joe Biden waits to speak during a press conference with French President Francois Hollande on the sidelines of the 71st session of the UN General Assembly at The Met in New York on September 20, 2016\. / AFP / STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN (Photo credit should read STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP/Getty Images) US Vice President Joe Biden waits to speak during a press conference with French President Francois Hollande on the sidelines of the 71st session of the UN General Assembly at The Met in New York on September 20, 2016\. / AFP / STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN (Photo credit should read STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP/Getty Images)STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN—AFP/Getty Images by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Sep 30, 2016 6:06 PM UTC [Vice President Joe Biden](http://time.com/4494104/joe-biden-cancer-moonshot/) is on a mission to end the malarkey behind weak [sexual assault](http://motto.time.com/4507978/viola-davis-sexual-assault-rape-foundation/) protocols and beliefs. During an [interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnAbNwJQ57M) on _The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon,_ Biden expressed his disdain for rape, sexual assault, and what we can do to help make college campuses safer. Earlier this week, Biden [appeared in an episode ](http://time.com/4513184/joe-biden-svu-cameo/)of _Law & Order: SVU_ in which he spoke out about the backlog of rape kits at police departments. “We can change the culture here. No means no,” Biden said during the interview. “If a woman can’t respond because she’s inebriated or under the influence, then it’s rape.” Biden noted that violent crime against women is down, but nothing has changed for women between the ages of 18-24: “They were being as brutalized as they were before.” The interview comes two years after the [White House](http://motto.time.com/4497927/white-house-secondary-schools-sexual-assault/) launched [It’s On Us](http://itsonus.org), an initiative dedicated to ending sexual assault on college campuses. During the interview, Biden also said men who commit sexual acts of violence against women are “cowards.” He explained: “Any man who takes a drunk woman up the stairs of a fraternity house is a damn coward. There’s nothing manly about this.” Biden said that he and his staff did research through town hall events and learned that the best way to end these harrowing cases is for men to get involved. “I’m convinced the vast majority of men understand and it’s about time we speak up and we intervene when we see it,” he said. [_Follow Motto on Facebook_](https://www.facebook.com/mottoworkplaylive/)_._ While sexual assault prevention remains a priority for Vice President Biden, so does family. Fallon [brought up](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1usaWetxndY) a [note](https://www.facebook.com/GavinNewsom/posts/10154492253483117:0) that the vice president wrote to his staff in 2014, which Fallon called “unbelievable.” Biden [wrote](https://www.facebook.com/GavinNewsom/posts/10154492253483117:0), “I do not expect nor do I want any of you to miss or sacrifice important obligations for work.” He said this was “very important” to him. In fact, so important that, “I will go so far as to say that if I find out that you are working with me while missing important family responsibilities, it will disappoint me greatly.” He explained to Fallon that the rationalization people make for missing family events but thinking “he’ll understand” is truly “a bunch of malarkey.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4514609/joe-biden-change-sexual-assault-culture/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4514609/joe-biden-change-sexual-assault-culture/"},"headline":"Joe Biden Is on a Mission to Change Sexual Assault Culture","datePublished":"2016-09-30T18:06:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:03:29.940Z","description":"'We can change the culture here. 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