‘Biden’s intransigence on the question of his Senate records is becoming increasingly untenable…’
(Michael Barnes, Liberty Headlines) Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden appeared on a highly favorable MSNBC talk show on Friday to answer questions about his alleged sexual assault of former Senate staffer Tara Reade.
It was the first time Biden addressed the issue, and under direct questioning from Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski, a virulently anti-Trump pundit, Biden fumbled, spun and framed the issue so poorly that many liberals ripped the former vice president.
“Did you sexually assault Tara Reade?” Brzezinski asked.
“No, it is not true,” Biden replied. “I’m saying unequivocally it never, never happened and it didn’t. It never happened.”
So far four people have come forward to corroborate Reade’s accusations.
Moreover, at least eight women have claimed Biden made them feel uncomfortable with inappropriate displays of affection, according to a recent investigative story by the New York Times—although it later removed references to the other women’s complaints at the insistence of the Biden campaign.
Dems’ Double-Standard Dilemma
Glenn Greenwald, a left-leaning reporter at The Intercept, zeroed-in on the atrocious hypocrisy of the media’s handling of the alleged Biden sexual assault in comparison to the allegations levied at Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Greenwald—best known for having first reported on NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden—had a new scoop last week after archival footage surfaced that further corroborated the rape claim. It appeared to show Reade’s now-deceased mother calling into CNN’s Larry King Live in 1993 to detail an assault that closely resembled Reade’s account.
Greenwald tweeted after Biden’s interview Friday to raise another question for Biden that Brzezinski failed to ask—regarding the left-wing double-standard on rape accountability and victim-shaming.
I would have liked to have heard what Biden thinks is the difference between Kavanaugh’s case and his. Why should Christine Blasey Ford have been believed to the point of keeping Kavanugh off the Court, but not Tara Reade? I haven’t heard anyone with a coherent answer to that.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 1, 2020
Previously, Biden said that when a woman comes forward to make sexual assault allegations “in the glaring lights of focus, nationally, you’ve got to start off with the presumption that at least the essence of what she’s talking about is real.”
Perhaps the Democratic Party’s likely candidate for president thought he would get a free pass from the media. But his brazen shift angered even some ultra-progressive reporters, such as Brittany Shepherd of Yahoo News.
When asked by @MSNBC what he might say to Reade, Biden sidesteps the question and says “I don’t what is behind any of it. It’s irrelevant. It never happened. It never happened. Period.”
— Brittany Shepherd (@brittanys) May 1, 2020
The validity of the accusations might easily be resolved by searching Biden’s U.S. Senate records at the University of Delaware. Biden represented Delaware in the upper chamber of Congress from 1973-2009, a 36-year period overlapping the alleged assault.
But Biden weasel-worded his way to saying he would not allow a public record search of the University of Delaware documents.
“He didn’t have an answer for why they can’t do the same kind of search at the University of Delaware,” said CNN’s Dana Bash.
“He was relying on the age-old—understandable—rule, without a controversy, that people don’t have any of their papers public until they’re after they’re gone from public life,” Bash continued. “But, this is not that. This is an exception.”
A DNC Coup in the Works?
Karen Tumulty, a feminist anti-Trump columnist for the Washington Post, defended Biden with a Kavanaugh double-standard, but said the former vice president will likely fold under the pressure as more of his own party members and media allies begin to turn on him.
“Biden’s intransigence on the question of his Senate records is becoming increasingly untenable,” Tumulty wrote. “He deserves the presumption of innocence. His archive may indeed include nothing that is relevant. But the best way to remove a shadow of doubt is to open a window and let the light in.”
But failing to review Biden’s public senate records would send the message that Democrats are exempt from answering for their time in government when running for higher office. Even by Buzzfeed News reporter Henry Gomez noted the problem.
Also of note in the @JoeBiden – @morningmika interview: Her persistence on opening up the Senate papers revealed how he doesn’t think the public should be able to review the extent of his past work while he’s running for president. https://t.co/JHXx1E4ya2
— Henry J. Gomez (@HenryJGomez) May 1, 2020
And the New York Times after adamantly laying cover for Biden in its newsroom, turned on him with a repudiation of the campaign’s talking-point claim that the paper’s friendly investigation had exonerated him in the case.
A New York Times spokesperson says Biden campaign talking points “inaccurately” suggest that the Times investigation found that Tara Reade’s allegation “did not happen.” Response to this scoop from @rubycramer @RosieGray https://t.co/ZUD6f2WSEE pic.twitter.com/LNaHvH0ZxF
— Jonathan Easley (@JonEasley) April 29, 2020
The paper’s editorial board piled on a further attack, in which it echoed Brzezinski by calling on the Democratic National Committee to investigate the allegations.
That, of course, was lambasted by the non-leftist press which pointed out the obvious conflict of interest, reminiscent of the sham domestic-abuse probe of former DNC Deputy Chair Keith Ellison in 2018.
However, some tossed out an alternative theory that, perhaps, the point of the blatantly lopsided probe would not be to clear Biden of the allegations, but rather to implicate the candidate, whose deteriorating cognitive capabilities already had raised red-flags about his prospects of going toe-to-toe with President Donald Trump.
Throwing Biden under the bus would, in turn, open the door to a defection of delegates that would allow the party to select a fresh challenge in the 2020 election.
Growing speculation points to an array of alternatives, among them: former First Lady Michelle Obama, 2016 candidate Hillary Clinton, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Biden’s strongest primary rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Liberty Headlines’ Ben Sellers contributed to this report.