Believe (Nearly) All Women?
Remember “Believe All Women”? The rallying cry for Democrats and their allies in their bid to derail Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination is out the window now, not two years later. They insist that Tara Reade’s charge that her then-boss sexually assaulted her is not to be believed because — in Nancy Pelosi’s phrase — “Joe Biden is Joe Biden.”
In other words, they were never actually committed to the principle they used to try to destroy a man’s career and reputation. To them, it all depends on the man in question, not the woman.
Biden finally made his first statement about the allegation Friday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” It had been a month since Reade accused Biden of violating her when she worked for him in the Senate in 1993, but not one interviewer had asked the de facto Democratic nominee about it until Mika Brzezinski stepped up.
“Unequivocally it never, never happened,” Biden said, calling on the National Archives to release any complaint Reade might have made that it has on file.
But he won’t release papers from his tenure in the Senate (held by the University of Delaware) and refused to answer Brzezinski when she repeatedly asked if he’d allow a search of Reade’s name to be done on them.
And he offered this bizarre defensive statement: “I don’t know why after 27 years all of a sudden this gets raised. I don’t understand it.”
Really? Reade came forward when it became clear Biden would be the Democratic nominee for the highest office in the land — and no Democrat seemed puzzled that Christine Blasey Ford came forward in 2018, as Kavanaugh was headed to the highest court in the land, with an even older claim about something she said happened when they were in high school.
When the judge was confirmed, Pelosi declared, “Senate Republicans chose to send a clear message to all women: Do not speak out, and if you do — do not expect to be heard, believed or respected.” Now she says Reade shouldn’t be believed because Biden is a man of “great integrity.”
We don’t know what happened in that Senate office in 1993. Some Reade friends recall her telling them years ago about the incident, and her mom called into “Larry King Live” that year talking about a staffer having “problems” with “a prominent senator.” Eight women, including Reade, a year ago said Biden had a pattern of touching females in a way that made them uncomfortable.
Still, the #MeToo group Times Up Now has reiterated its support for Biden, as have a litany of top Democratic women.
Biden sighed when Brzezinski asked him, “Are women to be believed unless it pertains to you?” But everyone in his party needs to answer that very question.