Tara Reade’s allegation of sexual assault against Biden is almost certainly false. Contrary to what some activists and women’s rights groups have claimed, Biden has responded appropriately.
This NYT piece makes no sense.
Either Biden sexually assaulted Tara Reade (stuck his hand up her skirt and fingered her vagina) or he didn’t. 1/16
The Times says activists want Biden to “acknowledge the importance of survivors and the need for systemic change around issues of sexism and assault.” 2/16
But Biden *has* addressed the really serious allegation, which alleges sexual *assault*.
He has said it is false.
And the really serious allegation surely is false, when all the facts are considered. 3/16
Many women who have worked for and been close to Biden have criticized him for getting too close to them and for inappropriate touching. Biden has already publicly acknowledged this criticism, apologized for the behavior, and said he would change (and apparently has). 4/16
The evidence shows that Reade’s original allegation amounted to nothing more than this kind of behavior (which is not to deny that this kind of behavior is troubling and serious enough). 5/16
But only in its latest incarnation has Reade claimed sexual assault (that is, the notorious up the skirt and fingering the vagina claim). 6/16
The NYT article itself mentions the following incriminating evidence:
“Last year, Ms. Reade was one of eight women who came forward to say Mr. Biden had kissed, hugged or touched them in ways that made them feel uncomfortable, but she did not raise the assault allegation then.” 7/16
Reade has a long history of making contradictory statements about the alleged incident and about Biden himself. 8/16
For example, in 2017 Alexandra Tara Reade praised Joe Biden for his action in helping stop sexual assault, not just once, but on multiple occasions. 9/16
Recently Reade scrubbed her Twitter account of the past three years of such contradictory comments. 10/16
(Many of Reade’s recent tweets have praised Russia and Vladimir Putin, and even sound like they’ve been written by a Russian with a poor command of English.) 11/16
Today, Ben Smith (formerly with BuzzFeed, now with the NYT) reported that Tara Reade has been turning down Fox appearances for many days. 12/16
This is entirely believable. The Fox News website devoted almost all of its top of the line coverage in the last several days to Tara Reade, so of course Fox would be interested in interviewing her. 13/16
The likeliest explanation for this is that Reade has decided she would not be able to survive the vetting she would get (not by Fox) if she were to agree to be interviewed now that her numerous contradictory past statements are better known. 14/16
So what is Biden to do beyond what he’s already done?
He’s apologized for inappropriate behavior, called Reade’s sexual assault allegation false, and said many times that sexual harassment and sexual assault are serious national problems that cannot be condoned. 15/16
In short, I’m with Barbara Boxer on this: 16/16
