WaPo Editorial Board: Biden Needs to ‘Address the Tara Reade Allegations and Release Relevant Records’
“Yet the way to signal he takes Ms. Reade’s case seriously, and the cases of women like her seriously, is to go before the media and the public ready to listen and to reply.”
The Washington Post editorial board applied pressure to presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to personally address the allegations from Tara Reade and “release relevant records”
Tara Reade alleges that Biden “pushed her against a wall and put his fingers up her skirt and then inside her” when she worked on his Senate staff in 1993.
Reade said she complained to other staffers and filed a complaint.
Biden’s campaign has denied the allegations. Biden himself has not mentioned the allegations nor has any reporter asked him about them:
Another place to look is at the source: the candidate himself. Mr. Biden may have little to say besides what his campaign has already said — that he did not do this, and that this is not something he ever would do. Yet the way to signal he takes Ms. Reade’s case seriously, and the cases of women like her seriously, is to go before the media and the public ready to listen and to reply.
Democrats have tried to shield Biden, but even the MSM is catching on:
CNN’s Alisyn Camerota calls out Nancy Pelosi after she says Joe Biden has addressed allegations: “he has not”https://t.co/PpQgEzVjQS pic.twitter.com/66sgH3wSqY
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 30, 2020
The University of Delaware has Biden’s records from his entire Senate career. A spokeswoman already said that the school will not release them until he has retired from public life for two years. She also said the school has not cataloged a large chunk of the records.
Reade does not have a copy of the complaint. She believes a copy may reside inside the records.
WaPo noted that none of the excuses should matter (emphasis mine):
There are, at the moment, no clear conclusions. There may never be. But that is no excuse for not searching. One place to start is the records covering Mr. Biden’s 36-year Senate career, donated to the University of Delaware in 2012 and slated for release to the public two years after Mr. Biden “retires from public life.” These could contain confirmation of any complaint Ms. Reade made, either through official congressional channels or to the three other employees she claims she informed not specifically of the alleged assault but more generally of harassment. They could also contain nothing of the sort. Insisting on an inventory doesn’t mean one believes Ms. Reade or doesn’t believe her. It signals only a desire for the public to know all that’s able to be known, which ought to be in everyone’s interest.
There are 1,875 boxes and 415 gigabytes of electronic content, largely uncatalogued. Searching won’t be as easy as some might assume. But an inventory conducted with an eye toward releasing only relevant material could at least ascertain whether personnel records are part of this archive at all. Demands for the release of the entire trove invite a worthwhile debate about candidate disclosures, yet that’s not a battle that needs to be fought today. The narrower question is whether the public ought to have as much information as possible about an assault accusation against a presidential contender, and the answer is yes.
The WaPo editorial board did not waste an opportunity to take a shot at President Donald Trump:
President Trump has been credibly accused of sexual assault, including rape, by dozens of women. He has responded by brushing the accusations off, once claiming repulsively, “She’s not my type.” It may seem unfair to hold Mr. Trump’s likely rival in the 2020 race to a standard that Mr. Trump has failed to meet again and again. But Mr. Trump shouldn’t be allowed to set that standard. A better man could.
Yes, we should believe all women. Yes, we should believe in innocent until proven guilty. Us non-leftists did that for Kavanaugh and should with Biden.
Biden needs to address this, especially as new revelations come out. Someone found a clip of Reade’s mom addressing the allegations on Larry King Live. Two more people corroborated the story.
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Comments
Reade has recently made a report to a law enforcement agency. Shouldn’t that agency be able to subpoena the records for the report she made ?
They aren’t going to investigate this in DC where they probably hate Trump and want Biden in.
The statute of limitations has surely long run on this, so there is no legitimate reason for the police to take any action on it.
I’m no Biden supporter, but why the 27 year wait to issue a complaint? Why not when this Senator ran for VP ages ago?
I agree. I’m instantly skeptical of claims like this after so long has passed…especially when the timing is so crucial.
If she was going to dredge this up, why not during either of his previous campaigns for President? Why not when he was named Obama’s VP pick? When he’s the front runner up against Sanders and Warren, whom Reade supports, all the sudden she’s all about telling her story?
Awful convenient that.
But that’s not the point. At all. According to the liberals women DO NOT LIE about sexual assault. Any charges, regardless of any corroboration or evidence, MUST be taken as gospel and the accused be deemed ineligible for public office, private success, employment, or accounts on twitter and facebook.
That’s the standard they’ve set. Delving into Biden’s records has no bearing. The accusation has been made…as far as the liberal are concerned, he’s guilty and should be hounded out of public life.
That’s the standard THEY’VE set. We should browbeat them mercilessly until they live up to it.
I’m convinced the Dems drove Al Franken out of office in order to set a low tolerance level for such conduct, in hopes that it would inspire the Republicans to turn against Trump. It didn’t happen and now they have buyer’s remorse.
I disagree. I think Franken got the axe because Democrats saw an opportunity to pick up the special election for the US Senate seat in Alabama. The GOP candidate was Roy Moore, who was facing charges of rape and sexual violence (the successful campaign against Moore became the template for the attempted lynching of Kavanaugh). The attacks against Moore would have fizzled if Franken got to stick around.
I am convinced that had the charges against Franken been made a few weeks later (or earlier) he would still be in the Senate.
You must not be very familiar with the workings of politics. If she had gone to the msm with her story, not much would have happened to Fingers Biden, but her career would have been over. It almost was even at her low level of inquiry. Also, unless you are a woman you cannot understand what it’s like to make a charge and then have to live with the predictable backlash from others, about what you are indicating are your motives or agenda.
I have seen Biden do several interviews recently, I am beginning to wonder if those doing the interviews are being told any questions about Reade are off limits and the interview is immediately over. I can’t see so many people working in concert to shield him from this story.
Maybe those are old interviews, from when he could form a whole sentence, played over again.
As to Breaking Off the Interview, it would have to be one of Joe’s handlers to do it…does anyone really believe that Joe has the ability to stop talking? He may mumble and stumble but he is always going to continue to talk, except for those short naps he is more and more relying on to get him thru the day.
Also, does the statute of limitations still apply to sexual assault claims? I know that provisions were made so that children assaulted decades ago are still able to file charges against their abusers, i.e. priests, scoutmasters, teachers, etc. Does that apply to adults? I do not know.
I think you’ve struck on what may be the reason why Biden hasn’t made a statement in public about the accusations – he doesn’t have the mental competence to do so. His handlers would rather have him discuss possible nuclear war with North Korea.
“Release relevant records”
When WaPo says this, what they mean is destroy all evidence before the subpoenas hit and make sure any skeletons in the closet are long gone.
WaPo is signaling we can’t quite bury it, so Biden needs to get his house in order so we can come in and say “clean as a whistle! Nothing to see here! And man were we hard on Joe we looked everywhere not a scintilla of evidence.”
What a charade.
Now we are getting reports of serious conflicts of interest between Biden and those at the University of Delaware that may have the paper trail.
The shredders are running 24/7 even as we speak.
Any personal response to the allegations (i.e., not from his campaign but from the candidate himself) are quite likely to be totally incomprehensible.
In fairness, I doubt the feeble minded Joe can remember anything that long ago. Speaking to the time aspect, I also have a continued problem with ANYONE complaining about anything that happened to them 25+ years ago. Don’t we have statute of limitation laws for a reason?
I don’t think anybody’s expecting a prosecution, but past bad acts, especially with a serial offender like Biden, should still count for something. (Not much, as evidenced by the left’s continuing love for Bubba Clinton.)
So if the SOL has run, the issue is alive as a campaign issue.
Why now?
Wouldn’t it be better to actually let them nominate this brain-dead fool and bring it up in October, when people will remember it at the polls?
There is not the slightest chance in Hades that this complaint (if it even existed) will ever see the light of day. Say what you will about the MSM/DNC axis: they learned very well from their Soviet mentors.
Given his rapidly fading intellect, it’s doubtful Senile Joe remembers anything about any women he approached. Of course, Liz, will be providing his answers anyway. So why bother??
The larger issue isn’t Joe Biden. Did he or didn’t he? I don’t know, and as several commenters note, the length of time between the event and now is beyond any statute of limitation legally.
But the larger issue is this — the Democrats and progressives, academics and media, who tell us that we must believe all women when the target is a Republican (e.g., Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas, etc.), and must respect due process when the target is a Democrat (e.g., Biden, Al Franken, etc.).
You simply can’t have it both ways, and an increasing number of people are catching on despite the media blockade and interference. The larger issue must be addressed; if the Democrats won’t do so, the public will do it for them.
“Believe all women” is and has been nothing more than a political cudgel. Now that it’s being used against them, the Democrats are going to have to figure out whether it is proper to use cudgels in politics.
When criticizing Reade’s delay, keep context in mind. First off, she did make a complaint. She reported the event to, what was then the proper authority, the personnel department. And it appears that they spiked it.
It was 1993. The Democrats had just succeeded in getting an actual accused rapist and sexual harrasser as President. She had seen up close what happened to the lives of the half-dozen women who made claims as to Bill Clinton’s sexual improprieties: They were ridiculed, called trailer trash and even faced the wrath and lies of Hillary from her position as head of the Bimbo Eruption unit of the campaign just completed. Remember the phrase “… drag a $100 bill through a trailer park”? This is what Reade could expect if she went public with the accusation.
And speak up when Biden got the VP nod?? Ha! Not when “Teh One” was at the top of the ticket. She was not ready to become a pariah in the party she still thought was the answer to the world’s ills. Why she waited this long, what event caused the break, is yet to be revealed.
It signals only a desire for the public to know all that’s able to be known, which ought to be in everyone’s interest.
WaPo has skipped a logical step here—determination that the offense is really disabling for the Presidency. Even if 100% true as charged, and no matter how tacky, disgraceful, infuriating, or illegal the alleged actions may or may not be, does this really swing enough weight to topple a candidacy? Biden’s not running to be Mr National Nice Guy, he’s running as the guy who controls, among other things, nukes. Overly-busy fingers would not seem to be of much relevance to the job. I’m not voting for him because he’s a senile old fool and, worse, a one-man cesspool of corruption extreme even for a Democrat; his primitive notion of interpersonal relations doesn’t figure into it. And while it would be embarrassing for all Americans to have a serial groper in the Oval Office, it’s not something which would likely precipitate a war or an 1861-level crisis.
This is a dog whistle to the Biden campaign…release some carefully curated records and we will clear you. Don’t think for a second that the WaPo editorial board is doing anything other than fishing for undeserved credibility.
Does CNN still have the now-27 year old call logs from the Larry King Show? If they do, then they can find the full name and phone number of the woman who is believed to be Reade’s mother.
Did the WaPoo editorial board do this sort of “penetrating” analysis of Hillary’s missing e-mails? Frankly the whole thing stinks.