Tara Reade's Allegation
now this is just downright weird.
https://twitter.com/SallyAlbright/status/1255753538518515717?s=20
Reade's father wrote a novel that has a scene which closely mirrors Reade's accusation.
drummerboy said:
now this is just downright weird.
https://twitter.com/SallyAlbright/status/1255753538518515717?s=20
Reade's father wrote a novel that has a scene which closely mirrors Reade's accusation.
it also mirrors several accusations against Trump. I'd say it doesn't mean anything one way or the other.
Not to worry! “It never happened.”
Joe Biden Says Tara Reade’s Account Of Sexual Assault "Never Happened" https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/henrygomez/joe-biden-tara-reade-response
Well if we are going to post some weird allegations, how about this one.
drummerboy said:
now this is just downright weird.
https://twitter.com/SallyAlbright/status/1255753538518515717?s=20
Reade's father wrote a novel that has a scene which closely mirrors Reade's accusation.
How does that closely mirror the accusation anymore than it mirrors any scene in any other such story. Actually since it occurs on Bleecker St. it could have been a scene from a journal of anyone in my old building.
And Reade said he made his move in the Senate building's halls? Really? Never saw Joe as that kind of a risk taker.
Morganna said:
drummerboy said:
now this is just downright weird.
https://twitter.com/SallyAlbright/status/1255753538518515717?s=20
Reade's father wrote a novel that has a scene which closely mirrors Reade's accusation.
How does that closely mirror the accusation anymore than it mirrors any scene in any other such story. Actually since it occurs on Bleecker St. it could have been a scene from a journal of anyone in my old building.
And Reade said he made his move in the Senate building's halls? Really? Never saw Joe as that kind of a risk taker.
well, the odd thing here is that it's her father that's the author.
drummerboy said:
well, the odd thing here is that it's her father that's the author.
And the tweet was from a woman announcing "it's real y'all." I don't get. What case is she making? A scene in a book from Reade's dad proves he got the story from his daughter?
I'm lost here.
mtierney said:
Not to worry! “It never happened.”
Joe Biden Says Tara Reade’s Account Of Sexual Assault "Never Happened" https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/henrygomez/joe-biden-tara-reade-response
what a stupid cartoon. It's only one allegation
Morganna said:
drummerboy said:
well, the odd thing here is that it's her father that's the author.
And the tweet was from a woman announcing "it's real y'all." I don't get. What case is she making? A scene in a book from Reade's dad proves he got the story from his daughter?
I'm lost here.
it doesn't "prove" anything. It's just a (very odd) piece of the puzzle.
ml1 said:
what a stupid cartoon. It's only one allegation
But it only took one allegation, from one woman, some thirty years after the fact, to bring about the Kavanaugh persecution. He was a 17 year old at the time. Biden was already a Senator at the time of Reade allegation.
mtierney said:
But it only took one allegation, from one woman, some thirty years after the fact, to bring about the Kavanaugh persecution. He was a 17 year old at the time. Biden was already a Senator at the time of Reade allegation.
My take, after watching the Kavanaugh hearings, was that he was part of a young crowd that drank, and his rep seemed to be one of excessive drinking. I'm not criticizing that part, but I could imagine that in a drunken state he did something sexually aggressive as part of a frat dare. I'm not big on past mistakes following us to our grave but, at least the allegations seemed to ring true, at least to me.
I admit that the Reade allegations are not clear to me yet. So I could use some more information but, if I'm understanding that a young Senator took a public risk out of the blue, it does not sound as plausible. Let's see how it plays out.
I'm looking at Kavanaugh as a man who was not in the public eye so I had no preconceived notion of guilt or innocence. Biden has been a public figure for decades and it seems odd that this behavior would go unnoticed.
Important for me to say, I don't equate this with the touching he is accused of. Living in the city and working in clubs everyone kissed and hugged as a greeting. It was a different time and place and I just don't get bent out of shape over it but I respect everyone's right to feel differently. I am hesitant to wreck someone's career over those things and I'm still sullen about Al Franken's departure. So I'm not going to equate one issue with another.
mtierney said:
ml1 said:
what a stupid cartoon. It's only one allegation
But it only took one allegation, from one woman, some thirty years after the fact, to bring about the Kavanaugh persecution. He was a 17 year old at the time. Biden was already a Senator at the time of Reade allegation.
It wasn't a "persecution", it was a hearing on his nomination for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court.
And it was rushed by the GOP, who hindered adequate investigation of his background.
nohero said:
It wasn't a "persecution", it was a hearing on his nomination for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court.
And it was rushed by the GOP, who hindered adequate investigation of his background.
Exactly. When someone is up for a lifetime appointment to one of the three branches of Government and up to then is unknown to 95% of the Country he or she must be vetted by the Senate Judiciary Committee. They have an obligation to hear from anyone with a strong objection.
Now as a candidate for President Biden is also subject to vetting. One of the differences is that Biden was not an unknown. He was VP of the US for 8 years. He could have become President in an instance. So it is fair to ask why Ms. Reade did not come forward during that time.
Further, the activity attributed to Kavanaugh allegedly occurred when he was a teenage boy. As a former teenage boy the conduct described is not far-fetched to me.
The conduct described by Reade by a middle-aged US Senator in a public hallway is far more questionable.
I'm seeing plenty of voices on the left saying these allegations should be taken seriously and investigated. I can't recall any similar voices on the right for, well, any of the many, many credible allegations against Republicans over the last several years.
There's too much rush to dismiss Reade by many Democrats to my liking, but the fact that there are also many voices taking this seriously is, to my mind, a significant difference than what you see on the Right.
In light of what is known now, what is the next step, in the minds of proponents of further investigation?
The NY Times calls for a search of all of Biden's papers at the University of Delaware. Considering the number of papers covering a 30+ Senate career and 8 years as VP such a search would take until Election Day at least and serve to keep the issue alive.
For what purpose? If there is no complaint in the Office of the Secretary of the Senate what is the chance that it is at the University?
I have two initial observations.
(1) yet another ding on the SS Biden, yay. Oh well I’m still holding out hope there’s an intervention and he agrees to step aside and Cuomo is the nominee. Probably like a 1% chance of this happening , but until it doesn’t, it’s like a lottery ticket in that it’s fun to dream about.
(2) Democrats are in a bit of a bind here. There was mostly full-throated and unequivocal support for Blasey Ford from the left, but I’m seeing a fair amount of “meh” and shoulder -shrugging about this. Raises a valid concern about how much support for the MeToo movement is based on principle, and how much is based on political convenience.
STANV said:
The NY Times calls for a search of all of Biden's papers at the University of Delaware. Considering the number of papers covering a 30+ Senate career and 8 years as VP such a search would take until Election Day at least and serve to keep the issue alive.
For what purpose? If there is no complaint in the Office of the Secretary of the Senate what is the chance that it is at the University?
Yes, the NYT Editorial Board calls for that (I do distinguish between the Opinion and News sections of papers), and I agree with them. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I did not recall seeing the WSJ editorial board (again, worth distinguishing between Opinion and News -- I respect and value the WSJ news side but the Opinion side is as clearly Republican-supporting as the NYT editorial side is center-left) making a similar case to investigate Kavanaugh.
I also found Ruth Marcus, writing in the WaPo, to be good.
Smedley said:
I have two initial observations.
(1) yet another ding on the SS Biden, yay. Oh well I’m still holding out hope there’s an intervention and he agrees to step aside and Cuomo is the nominee. Probably like a 1% chance of this happening , but until it doesn’t, it’s like a lottery ticket in that it’s fun to dream about.(2) Democrats are in a bit of a bind here. There was mostly full-throated and unequivocal support for Blasey Ford from the left, but I’m seeing a fair amount of “meh” about this. Raises a valid concern about how much support for the MeToo movement is based on principle, and how much is based on political convenience.
In response to the second one, if you go up about 6 posts, I left a comment that you might think is reasonable. Tell me what you think.
In response to the first, yeah, we can dream.
Morganna said:
Smedley said:
I have two initial observations.
(1) yet another ding on the SS Biden, yay. Oh well I’m still holding out hope there’s an intervention and he agrees to step aside and Cuomo is the nominee. Probably like a 1% chance of this happening , but until it doesn’t, it’s like a lottery ticket in that it’s fun to dream about.(2) Democrats are in a bit of a bind here. There was mostly full-throated and unequivocal support for Blasey Ford from the left, but I’m seeing a fair amount of “meh” about this. Raises a valid concern about how much support for the MeToo movement is based on principle, and how much is based on political convenience.
In response to the second one, if you go up about 6 posts, I left a comment that you might think is reasonable. Tell me what you think.
In response to the first, yeah, we can dream.
Yes I think your take is a reasonable one. I need to learn more about the allegation against Biden myself, so my opinion is developing. But your perspective makes sense.
Smedley said:
(2) Democrats are in a bit of a bind here. There was mostly full-throated and unequivocal support for Blasey Ford from the left, but I’m seeing a fair amount of “meh” and shoulder -shrugging about this. Raises a valid concern about how much support for the MeToo movement is based on principle, and how much is based on political convenience.
Read Biden's statement from an event last evening, about giving every woman (including Reade) a fair hearing.
During an evening virtual fundraiser with hundreds of veterans from the Obama administration, he addressed the matter again, repeating his assertions that Reade’s account “didn’t happen,” but explaining that his reaction doesn’t amount to hypocrisy because of how Democrats have approached the #MeToo movement.
“My knowledge that it isn’t true does nothing to shake my belief that women have to be able to be heard and that all the claims be taken seriously,” Biden said. “It isn’t enough just to simply take my word for it and dismiss it out of hand. Frankly, that shouldn’t be enough for anyone because we know that sort of approach is how the culture of abuse has been allowed to fester for so long.”
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020/05/02/us/politics/ap-us-election-2020-biden-democrats.html
Tara Reade has clarified her complaint against Biden.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Tara Reade, the former Senate staffer who alleges Joe Biden sexually assaulted her 27 years ago, says she filed a limited report with a congressional personnel office that did not explicitly accuse him of sexual assault or harassment.
“I remember talking about him wanting me to serve drinks because he liked my legs and thought I was pretty and it made me uncomfortable,” Reade said in an interview Friday with The Associated Press. “I know that I was too scared to write about the sexual assault.”
Reade said she described her issues with Biden but “the main word I used — and I know I didn’t use sexual harassment — I used ‘uncomfortable.’ And I remember ‘retaliation.’”
Reade described the report after the AP discovered additional transcripts and notes from its interviews with Reade last year in which she says she “chickened out” after going to the Senate personnel office. The AP interviewed Reade in 2019 after she accused Biden of uncomfortable and inappropriate touching. She did not raise allegations of sexual assault against Biden until this year, around the time he became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
The existence of the Senate report has become a key element of the accusations against Biden, which he has flatly denied. Reade says she doesn’t have a copy of the report, and Biden said Friday that he is not aware that any complaint against him exists. He asked the Senate and the National Archives to search their records to try to locate a complaint from Reade."
Smedley said:
(2) Democrats are in a bit of a bind here. There was mostly full-throated and unequivocal support for Blasey Ford from the left, but I’m seeing a fair amount of “meh” and shoulder -shrugging about this. Raises a valid concern about how much support for the MeToo movement is based on principle, and how much is based on political convenience.
Correct but remember that Kavanaugh won that fight.
I do not think Reade's allegations will be proven or not proven. The problem for me is that the election will be Biden v. Trump. I agree with the article I linked from the Atlantic. I always despised Donald Trump but his handling of COVID 19 not only conforms my feelings but shows me that he's even worse than I thought.
I had not read cramer's post when I posted the foregoing. So if a written complaint is actually found it will not corroborate harassment let alone assault. At this point my guess is, and I mean guess, that if a complaint is found it will not resolve the matter and if not complaint is found it will not resolve the matter.
Ms. Reade gave an interview to AP. They ran a story. She then said that she didn't say what AP said she said. Then she said the AP story was accurate but the headline was not. And then she cancelled her appearance on Chris Wallace's program.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/05/tara-reade-mention-assault-biden-complaint-false.html
https://www.foxnews.com/media/tara-reade-associated-press-biden-complaint
mtierney said:
ml1 said:
what a stupid cartoon. It's only one allegation
But it only took one allegation, from one woman, some thirty years after the fact, to bring about the Kavanaugh persecution. He was a 17 year old at the time. Biden was already a Senator at the time of Reade allegation.
@mtierney : There was more than one accusation against Kavanaugh, plus questions of possible perjury (that he lied under oath).
"Kavanaugh’s critics first began contemplating the prospect of his impeachment immediately upon his confirmation, which was voted on by the narrowest margin in 130 years, and which followed three named accusations of sexual misconduct."
drummerboy said:
now this is just downright weird.
https://twitter.com/SallyAlbright/status/1255753538518515717?s=20
Reade's father wrote a novel that has a scene which closely mirrors Reade's accusation.
I read that his novel was referred to as a memoir.
Which made me think of Blade Runner, and the belief that a memory was one's own when it was from someone else. But, it seems unclear which direction that memory went. And strange either way.
11,600 retweets of an old photo that someone portrayed as Biden with Reade. It was Zoe Baird.
https://twitter.com/kpoulsen/status/1256825294494724096?s=21
Zoe Baird is a woman who was definitely mistreated by The DC establishment.
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If we are going to discuss this it should have its own thread.
IMHO Biden did well in his interview by Mia Brzezinski this morning. She kept asking the same questions over and over. Biden was unequivocal in his denial while refusing to attack his accuser or even question her motive. He called for release by the National Archives of any complaint by Ms. Reade.
Mia kept asking him about the papers at the U of Delaware and he explained repeatedly that employment matters would not be among those papers. However this line of attack will continue. If a name search of "Tara Reade" can be made of those records it should be made.
Of course if all searches turn up no complaint the Right ( and part of the Left) will yell "Cover-up".