Biden's sexual assault accusation

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A lot of people consider Breitbart to be an ultra-conservative website. It's certainly conservative. I read from many different websites regularly to get many different perspectives. Huffpo, for example which I think a lot of people consider to be ultra-liberal.

There's this article: 6 Reasons Why I Believe Joe Biden Sexually Assaulted Tara Reade

The reasons given in the article are as follows:

"1. Reade Did Not Change Her Story

The allegation Reade changed her story is false. She still claims Biden engaged in unwanted touching but that this was separate from the assault. She also says there’s a paper trail backing up this claim. She filed a complaint against Biden over the unwanted touching — something I will address below.

2. Experts Say Assault Victims Frequently Don’t Tell the Full Story All at Once
Rich McHugh, one of the investigative reporters who worked with Ronan Farrow to break the Harvey Weinstein story and who says he finds Reade’s allegation “credible,” also says he has seen this before:

“A number of [Weinstein’s victims] didn’t come out with their full story to us at the time,” he states. “For obvious reasons they are wrestling with whether they trust you as a reporter, whether they want to go out with the full horrific story that’s going to be Google-able for the rest of their life.” He asserts many survivors have told him they did not tell their “full story at the time because they didn’t feel comfortable” and that he does not see this as an issue.

And again, Reade did not change her story, she simply added more details.

3. Reade is a Lifelong Democrat

Reade did support Bernie Sanders during the primary, but why would she risk a second Donald Trump term by continuing to push the issue now that Bernie’s dropped out?

4. Reade Worked in Biden’s Senate Office in 1993

This might sound simplistic, but it’s important to remember how apeshit Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) went over Christine Blasey Ford’s now-debunked allegations against Brett Kavanaugh when she could not even establish she ever knew Kavanaugh.

So, yes, in this climate, it is worth noting that Reade knew and worked for Biden during the time in question.

5. Witness Number One

Reade told her brother about the alleged sexual assault at the time it happened. McHugh has talked to Reade’s brother and says the details of their stories are the same.

6. Witness Number Two

Reade told a friend about the alleged sexual assault at the time it happened. McHugh has talked to Reade’s friend and says the details of their stories are the same.

7. Witness Number Three

Reade told a friend about the alleged assault about 15 years after it happened, so sometime around 2008. McHugh has talked to this woman and this woman confirms Reade told her a “horrific” story about Biden.

8. Witness Number Four

McHugh spoke with an intern who worked under Reade in Biden’s Senate office at the time. The intern knew nothing about the alleged assault, but McHugh says, “she said … in mid-April of 1993, Tara was abruptly no longer her supervisor. So the timing matches exactly with what Tara was saying.”

And what Reade is saying is that she was fired for filing a complaint.

9. Reade Invites Scrutiny

Unlike Blasey Ford, who hid behind her lawyers and little girl voice, Reade is inviting scrutiny, has asked investigative reporters like McHugh to dig into the details of her allegation.

Liars never invite scrutiny. They dodge it and look for excuses to avoid it.

10. Scrutiny Has Only Bolstered Reade’s Claim

Since Reade invited this scrutiny, details have only bolstered her claim, not contradicted it. Most notably…

11. Mom’s Anguished Call to Larry King Live

Reade has been telling interviewers she told her mother, Jeanette Altimus, at the time about the alleged assault. Unfortunately, Altimus passed in 2016, so there is no way to verify this… Except there is…

Reade’s been telling journalists that sometime in 1993 her mother called into CNN’s Larry King Live asking for advice about her daughter’s problems with a “prominent senator.”

That video clip has now been found, and is a crucial and damning piece of evidence in support of Reade’s allegation.

12. The University of Delaware Refuses to Open Biden’s Senate Papers

According to McHugh, if Reade did indeed file a sexual harassment complaint, it would be among Biden’s senate papers, which are currently held at the University of Delaware. The university, however, told McHugh it will not allow anyone access to those papers until two years after Biden retires from public office.

13. Biden Is Not Demanding the University of Delaware Open His Papers

Look at the difference between Kavanaugh and Biden…

Kavanaugh could not wait to defend himself in public, to put forth all the documentation asked for, to do whatever he could to invite whatever scrutiny was required to prove his innocence.

Biden, on the other hand, is in hiding. He has not even said a word about the allegation (it helps that in a series of interviews with friendly fake reporters like Jake Tapper, Anderson Cooper, and George Stephanopoulos, he wasn’t asked).

Further, Biden is not asking the University of Delaware to throw open his senate papers while begging reporters to dig through them knowing this will prove no one filed a sexual harassment complaint against him.

Biden is acting like a guilty man. The guilty have everything to hide.

Innocent men, like Kavanaugh, have nothing to hide.

14. The Media are Terrified of This Story

Within a few weeks, on top of countless hours of broadcast time, CNN published nearly 700 stories in support of Blasey Ford’s ridiculous lies.

As of this writing, CNN has published only two stories about Reade, both of them favorable to Biden.

No one in the media have dared ask Biden about the allegation, and when the media do bring it up, they try to write Reade off as a crank, as an unstable Putin supporter (an allegation McHugh says is false).

Those of us of a certain age remember all too well that this is exactly what the media did to Bill Clinton’s victims. Paula Jones was smeared as trailer trash. Monica Lewinsky was defamed as a crazed stalker. Kathleen Willey was slandered as an unstable gold digger. Juanita Broaddrick was swept under the rug. And just like today’s so-called #MeToo activists, just like Alyssa Milano and Hilary Rosen today (both have endorsed and stand by Biden), Clinton-era feminists gleefully joined this appalling jihad.

If the media believed they could debunk and discard Reade’s allegation with facts, they would be all over this story. They know they can’t, so they are treating it like its radioactive — because it is.

15. Biden Has a Long Pattern of Inappropriate Touching

Biden’s sense of entitlement when it comes to inappropriately touching women and CHILDREN, is well-established. If he behaves this way in public, imagine his behavior in private.

16. Reade Faces Prison If She’s Lying

Last month, Reade filed a formal criminal complaint against Biden, and one of the penalties for filing a false complaint is prison.

So while Reade is inviting investigative reporters to dig into and possibly debunk her allegation, she is also risking prison if that debunking occurs.

Bottom line…

Reade is behaving like someone desperate to expose a terrible truth, while Biden is behaving like someone with something terrible to hide.

Additional evidence could certainly change my mind. But right now the only people who do not want this investigated are Joe Biden and his media allies."

CNN ran 700 stories during the Kavanaugh hearings about Blasey Ford's allegations. CNN has apparently run two stories about Reade's allegations against Biden and both stories were apparently favorable to Biden. I don't see how that isn't media bias and one that's very troublesome given the existence of the #MeToo Movement.

Also, this is a bigger issue than just being political. There are calls even among "progressives" (ie liberal) for Biden to drop out or prove the allegations wrong.

[thought_mode=devil's_advocate]

Where is Ms. Ford's evidence?  Accusations are not evidence.  Allegations are not evidence.  Belief is not evidence.  Feelings are not evidence.  Media bias is not evidence.  Political bias is not evidence.  Coincidence is not evidence.  And popular opinion on how a guilty or innocent person "should" act is not evidence.

All of the alleged "evidence" is hearsay and opinion; nothing more.

An alleged witness's testimony is valid only if they actually witnessed a crime as it was being committed, or if they actually witnessed the aftermath of a crime.  Being told by an alleged victim that a crime has been committed does not make a person a valid witness, and all the alleged witnesses tell the same story because they are only repeating what they have been told to say by the alleged victim.

Now, did Ms. Ford tell these alleged "witnesses" about the alleged crime as it was allegedly happening or only after the alleged crime could have possibly taken place?  If the former, then why did none of the alleged witnesses try to stop the alleged crime, or even report the crime to the police?  Also, if she was being assaulted, how could she have had the opportunity to call so many people?  And why did she tell those people instead of the police in the first place?

The Media may not be so much "terrified" to run with this story as they see no merit in it at all -- no "smoking gun", no semen-stained dress, no "rape kit", and the alleged victim finally filed a complaint only years after the alleged crime allegedly occurred.

Sure, she's risking jail time for filing a false police report, but how could anyone prove that the report is false?  No one can even prove that it is true!

Finally, even if the alleged assault actually took place, then Ms. Ford has irreparably damaged her case by not going to the police immediately afterward.  She can tell all of her friends, go on every daytime talk show, and even publish a book if she wants, but without a single shred of evidence, she is just another shrill voice crying for attention.

[/thought_mode]

^ Do you mean Ms. Reade, the woman accusing Biden of sexual assault rather than Ms. Ford, the woman accusing Justice Kavanaugh and who had no factual association to Kavanaugh unlike Reade to Biden?

Ms. Reade.  Sorry for the mix-up.  My position is still the same -- where is the alleged victim's alleged evidence?

You're correct that there is no concrete evidence such as DNA. Item 12 in the article, the Senate papers may apparently contain a sexual harassment complaint filed at that time, but the docs are sealed. I don't know if the four witnesses who corroborate her story would be considered "evidence". In contrast to this case, Blasey Ford's "witnesses" either refused to corroborate her claims or denied the claims if I recall correctly.

Then the alleged victims might have better luck filing for divorce -- only in divorce court do allegations of the plaintiffs seem to carry more weight than any evidence the defendant might provide.

Us voters are not prosecutors trying to get a jury to convict. Us voters are employers deciding whether to hire a person to be our President. The voters will judge any #MeToo allegations against candidates based on their biases. Even if they think a candidate is guilty they may as they have done in the past hire said person for any number of reasons such as they they think the candidate would make a good President despite being a sexual predator, in this case they might think Trump is a worse predator then Biden, or just plain worse.

The vast majority of #MeToo cases happened in the past and are not legally provable. It is common for sexual assault victims to make an accusation long enough after the incident so the guilty person faces no legal consequences. That does not mean their are no consequences as many people have had their careers harmed and have been shunned based on others “feelings” allegations truth.

When the only goal of some #MeToo-based complaints seems to be the ruination of the careers of certain men, I have to wonder if those cases are really acts of revenge by the alleged victims for not getting their own career boost from their alleged attackers.

As in, "Give me a raise / a promotion / the lead role or I will accuse you of rape."

And it does not matter if the alleged victim has no evidence, because "everybody knows" that what all men in charge do all day is nothing but sexually assault every woman who walks into their offices, right?

Right?

No, I'm not talking about Harvey Weinstein ... may he rot ...

I’m not sure how you can reasonably complain about either media bias or women not being believed while posting a one-eyed Breitbart article that accuses Christine Bracey Ford of being a liar. When even Ben Shapiro describes a website as white nationalist then safe to say that it probably is.

As I’ve said in other threads about this subject, I think Reade’s accusations are more comparable to the third woman who accused Kavanaugh of running trafficking rings. That was a far-fetched allegation that almost nobody took seriously. There are accusations against Biden that are of similar credibility but less gravity to those Ford made against Kavanaugh and they are concerned.

I certainly don’t want to go after Reade too much but characterising her as a lifelong Democrat is plainly wrong other than on a superficial level.

I think her claim that Biden made her uneasy is probably true. I think that when this didn’t sink his campaign, she probably fabricated the elements that she only revealed this year.

And this is the thing that Breitbart writers don’t get: MeToo was never about believing the incredible. If there’s no evidence then you don’t call them a liar but you also don’t throw away the entire justice system. If someone has a long history of being unreliable, if they repeatedly change their story, if they have a clear motive for being dishonest, then you certainly don’t declare the accused to be guilty.

If people want to go after Biden for his wandering hands then yeah, that’s appropriate. Maybe elderly American NTs think it is OK to touch people’s shoulders without asking but I personally wouldn’t. But believing the digital penetration thing while simultaneously insulting Dr Ford is just plainly partisan rubbish.

What is the name of the third woman who accused Kavanaugh of running trafficking rings? I don't recall that.

I have no doubt that the #MeToo movement has spurred people to make false accusations for nefarious reasons.

I am pretty certain that sexual harassment and worse from powerful men was far from uncommon at a lot these companies. I have seen how a lot of guys talk about and act towered women in employment and other situations. No not every man and certainly not all day.

I do find the allegations against Kavnaugh very credible. I quite remember what went on at college and office parties in the late 70s and 80s and the culture of the time when teen exploitation movies with misogynistic story lines such as “Animal House” ,”Porky’s”, “Revenge of the Nerds” were all the rage. The type of fraternities Kavnaugh belonged to were quite notorious for gross behaviors. His college writings that came out pointed towered that thinking. Even if he did do it should decades old behavior with no evidence of that type of behavior since then should have disqualified him is another question.

As far as the allegation against Biden at the moment I am leaning against believing it. While I have no doubt based on video and pictures that Biden is too “handsy” in a creepy way. In the Northeast it as not uncommon for men back in the day to be handsy in that way as a sigh of affection, it was not sexual. But that was for relatives, not at public events with colleagues at public ceremonies like Biden. Up until this point there has been no other accusations that he went beyond that. One should take accusations raised in an election year with a grain of salt.

I know nothing about the following site. Maybe others here would know if it's "white nationalist"?

Evaluating Tara Reade’s Allegation Against Joe Biden

"Is there any good reason to ignore Joe Biden’s accuser? Not from what we know so far."

Some excerpts that stand out:

"Her allegation is credible enough to have received an in-depth article in Newsweek, but so far has gone completely unmentioned by the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, and MSNBC, and when Biden has done interviews he hasn’t even been asked about Reade’s claim. (Reason and the Guardian have published articles questioning the media silence.) Prominent champions of the “MeToo” movement, including many who loudly defended Christine Blasey Ford when she went public about being sexually assaulted by Brett Kavanaugh during high school, have been noticeably silent about defending Reade. "

"Anyone who has listened to Reade’s interview with Katie Halper—and I encourage everyone who can stomach it to do so—knows that if this were the case, Reade would have to be very malicious or very delusional. Her story is so detailed and emotional that it is extremely hard, listening to her tell it, to believe that she is not telling the truth."

"So is there anything to the argument that Tara Reade is not credible?

No, I don’t think so. I have talked to Tara Reade extensively myself, and she has been completely consistent and frank. I have talked to her brother, who confirms that Tara told him about the assault at the time. I have also talked to her friend Sarah*, a fellow Capitol Hill staffer Tara spoke to about the assault in 1993 as well as over the years afterward. The Intercept talked to both of them as well, and Reade’s brother Collin Moulton said: “Woefully, I did not encourage her to follow up… I wasn’t one of her better advocates. I said let it go, move on, guys are idiots.” When I asked Sarah if the account Tara has given to the press is consistent with what she said in 1993, Sarah said that it was. She confirmed that Tara had called her on the phone shortly after the incident happened and was very distraught about it. Sarah says the news left her in “absolute shock” at the time. She added:

“I have not enjoyed knowing this about someone [Biden] who for eight years was in the news as VP. Even in this campaign… every time I see him… I can’t… I mean I wasn’t in the hallway but I still can’t look at him without thinking of that… She should have been safe. She should never have had anything close to this even happen.“

I also asked Sarah about a comment Tara’s brother made to me. He said that the incident had changed Tara’s personality, sapping her confidence. Sarah agreed, saying Tara began to “second guess” herself afterwards, the effects of Biden’s attack on Tara were severe and lasting. “It’s never left her,” she said. “What I wouldn’t give to go back in time and to pull her out of that hallway. Say ‘Run! Go!’ But no one can make time go back.”

That is more corroboration than Christine Blasey Ford had—she hadn’t told anyone at the time of her assault, yet her accusation was front-page news. But I also think that the particular reasons Marcotte and Jezebel have for casting doubt on Tara Reade do not hold up, and I would like to go through all the current criticisms of Reade and show why they are so weak. In fact, I think they are totally indefensible. Those who make them are casting doubt on a victim for no good reason, and suggesting that women who come forward should be disbelieved on spurious grounds. Ultimately, those who have criticized and ignored Tara Reade are doing serious damage to the MeToo movement by suggesting that women like Reade may well simply be delusional or lying; and, until they can prove that they are not delusional or lying, their claims can be set aside. "

Walrus, please review the site that the article was posted on and give me your opinion as to whether it's a "white nationalist" site.

I really cannot argue against any of the points you have made here.  Maybe I'm just hoping for too much, but it would help anyone's case to have solid material evidence (or at least some actual on-the-spot eyewitnesses) to back up the accusations being made.  Lacking those, anyone could accuse someone of a believable crime and have his or her day in court, complete with a criminal conviction against a possibly innocent defendant.

A single op-ed piece in a "Progressive" magazine by someone who is not a lawyer does not make for an amicus curiae brief -- it makes for "Trial by Media" only.

He says he will pick a woman running mate,maybe Monica Lewinski might be his style,and she has previous white house experience