Tara Reade Biden allegation megathread

[BudgieForce]

You know what, get it all out in the open. Democrats have three months till the convention. If there are potential landmines for Biden, better now when democrats can replace him then in October.

[BudgieForce]

So, two things that bother me.

First, there is a quote from Reade from a while ago where she said she didn't blame Biden for her problems in Washington but that she did blame the people around him. That to me could mean she felt she had been poorly treated by his staff but couldnt do anything about it.

Second, her mother said the only option Reade has was going to the press. But why didnt Reade have the option to go to the police? And further more, Reade said this call to Larry King specifically mentioned her sexual harassment, yet the actual transcript mentions no such thing.

I dont not believe Tara Reade, but the holes in her story make me cautious.

[BudgieForce]

CNN now covering it.

Yeah, they mentioned it on air earlier today. I know your trying to concern troll, but this Larry King update wont get much oxygen outside of this weekend. It's not a huge bombshell or smoking gun like Twitter commentators and Fox News are trying to make it out to be.

I mean, Fox News has three separate articles about three separate Bernie surrogates twitter threads clogging up my Google news feed. 

[BudgieForce]

The Reade allegations have been the top story on foxnews.com for the past three days. The allegations are nowhere to be found on nytimes.com,  washingtonpost.com, or cnn.com. Of course, it's the top story on theintercept.com. I doubt most Americans are aware of the Larry King tape at this point. If there's a more sustained push by Reade and her allies for media attention, it could become an even bigger story and I'll be interested in seeing how that affects Biden's standing.

There are like 5 Fox News stories in my google feed about this. 3 of them are individual articles about Tweets made by Bernie surrogates. It reeks of desperation on Fox's part. Now, I'm not saying this story shouldn't be covered. But it's not some shocking smoking gun that requires all  that much real estate on news websites. This allegation has been covered by all major media outlets already, and barring some actual smoking gun or more accusers, I don't think there's much more to say about it.

Edit: I feel icky writing this so clinically. Women should be believed and their claims investigated. But Reade's claims have been investigated, she's past the Statue of Limitations and I don't think there's enough evidence to ask Biden to step aside. It just is what it is.

[BudgieForce]

Barring any new developments (which certainly isn't impossible but not all that likely either), I don't think this will be a huge deal, at least electorally speaking. This call adds no evidence in her favor beyond mild corroboration that wasn't really being disputed anyway, and in my opinion hurts her case in other ways. I think Fox will absolutely try to push it, but ultimately they will have to move on without something new (even the email scandal had some drip drip drip to it).

That's the big one. It seemed like we got a new email "bombshell" every other week. As long as more woman don't come out of the woodwork and start accusing Biden, this remains a one off accusation which will allow people to remain skeptical of the initial claim(rightly or wrongly).

I should note that people with high powered positions who commit sexual assault almost never have a single victim. That's how these stories usually take sexual predators down, an avalanche of accusations.

Edit: I'm not saying more woman will come out and accuse Biden, just that it's usually what happens. I have to believe more woman wont come out though, Biden has run 3 presidential campaigns and was vetted for Vice President in 2008. Not to mention the RNC has also probably done it's fair share of digging into Biden. If Biden were a serial assualter, you'd think someone would have found something by now.

[BudgieForce]

What the Biden camp should be doing right now is digging up the reasons why Reade was fired and get everyone on the same page.

I am not saying to go on full offense, but when Biden gets asked about the fake allegation, he should have a solid answer.

Yep. It's going to come up at some point, whether by the media or by Trump, so they need to start formulating now what their eventual response is going to be.

If debates are live in person with audiences, I wouldn't be surprised if Trump tried to pull another Hillary-with-Bills-accusers situations with Reade in the audience or something. He's that shameless.

Regardless of what you think of Reade, I think she's made it pretty apparent she wont help Trump. Now, I'm sure the right will attempt to use her accusation to their benefit, but I really doubt she'll pull a Juanita Broaddrick and become a Trump surrogate.

[BudgieForce]

Has/is BI retracting?

Why would they? Did I miss something?

[BudgieForce]

I'm not entirely sure what Biden should do in this instance. Should Biden directly respond, which will let him defend himself but give the story more oxygen. Or should Biden just continue to ignore the accusation and hope it goes away on its own. It is April, so a single accusation wont have enough longevity to keep itself in the news. However, that only works if Reade is the only woman.

[BudgieForce]

Yeah, I think its fine to debate the veracity of Reade's claims and the political repercussions of them, but I agree that we should avoid attacking Reade herself. 

[BudgieForce]

Edit: I feel icky after posting this. The situation is what it is. May the chips fall where they may.

[BudgieForce]

This is not the road these people want to go down.

"In the week immediately following his first wife's fatal car accident"

Dragging up this rumor is plain evil.

[BudgieForce]

That CounterPunch (lol) article has already been debunked.  Biden didn't arrive in Washington until mid-73 because he stayed in Delaware to be with his kids after the accident.

Yeah, I looked it up. Biden's wife died in mid December of 1972, before Biden was a senator. Biden was sworn in January at the hospital chapel with his sons. When would Biden have had the chance to go to Washington D.C and harass women a week after his wife's death when he wasn't even a senator yet? This is pure libel and people should be ashamed of spreading it.

[BudgieForce]

Am I the only one who is genuinely shocked that this isn't trending on Twitter right now?

They're too busy tweeting about the most recent Joe flub, "Economic Intercourse".

Edit: Except, it's not really a flub. But whatever.

[BudgieForce]

All the stories on this right now seem to be focusing on how Biden hasn't been asked questions about it or how female politicians are responding to it. And at that point, who the hell really cares? It's obvious this story wont take Biden down. So it seems like people in the media need to take the opportunity to feel morally superior and act like it's a big scandal that the existing scandal wasn't covered properly. I don't really know what this beltway bubble wants Biden to do. He's not dropping out, the party isn't abandoning him, and his poll numbers haven't taken a hit. It seems like they're upset that Biden seems to have maneuvered through this unscathed by basically doing and saying nothing.

[BudgieForce]

Also, if I could make a point. I've seen multiple people on social media discuss how this story is going to lead to Biden's senate document archive getting released somehow. Lets go over how that is unlikely.

The Freedom of Information Act, the thing used to uncover sensitive documents from the United States government, does not cover the Legislative Branch. So, someone cant sue for Biden's archives to be opened in order to find any complaints filed against Biden.

The vast majority of Biden's archive is still in its original, physical format. That means most of the documents are sitting in locked backroom somewhere. So, the only way this is leaking is if someone goes back there and steals heavy boxes with years worth of files in them.

And after 2016, even if Biden was 100% innocent, why in God's name would he let the media have a free for all with 30 years worth of potentially embarrassing stuff.

[BudgieForce]

I’m scared this is going to be the new “emails”. That being a scandal with flimsy evidence and a lot of hearsay. How much attention will this receive? Coupled with a strong third party candidate in the form of Justin Amash and I’m honestly terrified we’re going to lose this election in a repeat of 2016.

The email scandal lasted as long as it did because new batches of emails were constantly being released at strategic moments throughout the campaign. Had we just gotten one huge email release, the scandal would have eventually lost its potency. At the moment, this is a single accusation. A single accusation can not be a new "emails" story because it cant sustain itself. This accusation has gotten some extra life with the Larry King call and the neighbor, but eventually new updates are going to stop. And the press can try their best to keep it front page news, but eventually the public stops caring.

Now, if more women come out and accuse Biden, then he'll be in trouble. But as of now, a single accusation from 27 years ago is not enough to seriously damage his campaign.

[BudgieForce]

I’m scared this is going to be the new “emails”. That being a scandal with flimsy evidence and a lot of hearsay. How much attention will this receive? Coupled with a strong third party candidate in the form of Justin Amash and I’m honestly terrified we’re going to lose this election in a repeat of 2016.

Exactly.

Biden shouldn't let this drip drip drip until election day.

The Biden camp should do oppo research and drop the bomb on her.

There will be a blowback, but it will dissipate by election day.

We should've known the media was going to pick this up even with the dubious claims. They need this to be 50/50 race because there is no money to be made in a race were people already know the outcome.

So Tara is here to stay because they need something to bring him down to Trump's level. Even if means discrediting and preventing woman who actually been sexually assaulted to come out.

The Democrats need to come out against her and not let this become another emails situation because if there is one thing both wings of the party are tired of is trying to uphold this level of morality and dignity in which American people don't care about and we ourselves can not maintain.

No, this is not the answer. It's April for gods sake. As long as Joe doesn't get accused by more women, he'll be fine. Going nuclear can only do two things, making Reade a martyr and giving the story more oxygen.

[BudgieForce]

I’m scared this is going to be the new “emails”. That being a scandal with flimsy evidence and a lot of hearsay. How much attention will this receive? Coupled with a strong third party candidate in the form of Justin Amash and I’m honestly terrified we’re going to lose this election in a repeat of 2016.

Exactly.

Biden shouldn't let this drip drip drip until election day.

The Biden camp should do oppo research and drop the bomb on her.

There will be a blowback, but it will dissipate by election day.

We should've known the media was going to pick this up even with the dubious claims. They need this to be 50/50 race because there is no money to be made in a race were people already know the outcome.

So Tara is here to stay because they need something to bring him down to Trump's level. Even if means discrediting and preventing woman who actually been sexually assaulted to come out.

The Democrats need to come out against her and not let this become another emails situation because if there is one thing both wings of the party are tired of is trying to uphold this level of morality and dignity in which American people don't care about and we ourselves can not maintain.

No, this is not the answer. It's April for gods sake. As long as Joe doesn't get accused by more women, he'll be fine. Going nuclear can only do two things, making Reade a martyr and giving the story more oxygen.

Let's just ignore it and hope that it goes away.

That's your plan?

Yes.

[BudgieForce]

It seems like we're at the "Why wont Biden address this" and "Democrats are worried" stage. Since Biden is a man, I assume we'll hit the "eh whatever" stage by the weekend barring any new developments.

[BudgieForce]

He's going to be forced to say something. Mostly because outlets online refuse to drop the story, despite there being no new news since Monday. Wapo and NYT keep pushing new stories about it. They won't let it go because they need some type of Biden scandal.

https://twitter.com/melbournecoal/status/1255603098741080064
https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1255611603040579587

...remember when #Klobmentum said that Biden don't need a plan and the allegation would just go away?

I stand by my statement. There's only so much media can push a story before it gets over saturated and people stop paying attention.

[BudgieForce]

He's going to be forced to say something. Mostly because outlets online refuse to drop the story, despite there being no new news since Monday. Wapo and NYT keep pushing new stories about it. They won't let it go because they need some type of Biden scandal.

https://twitter.com/melbournecoal/status/1255603098741080064
https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1255611603040579587

...remember when #Klobmentum said that Biden don't need a plan and the allegation would just go away?

I stand by my statement. There's only so much media can push a story before it gets over saturated and people stop paying attention.

...we'll see

It will drip drip drip until election day unless something is done.

Drip drip drip implies new developments on a regular basis. What new developments are likely in this situation?

[BudgieForce]

He's going to be forced to say something. Mostly because outlets online refuse to drop the story, despite there being no new news since Monday. Wapo and NYT keep pushing new stories about it. They won't let it go because they need some type of Biden scandal.

https://twitter.com/melbournecoal/status/1255603098741080064
https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1255611603040579587

...remember when #Klobmentum said that Biden don't need a plan and the allegation would just go away?

I stand by my statement. There's only so much media can push a story before it gets over saturated and people stop paying attention.

Just like they stopped paying attention to Hillary's emails...

We got an email dump every other week. That wont be the case here.

[BudgieForce]

I watched The View segment. Seems like the panel was skeptical of the allegation. And judging from the response outside of Twitter and the beltway, I'd say skepticism is the most common response to this story.

[BudgieForce]

I watched The View segment. Seems like the panel was skeptical of the allegation. And judging from the response outside of Twitter and the beltway, I'd say skepticism is the most common response to this story.

What were the takes of each panelist?

They had a reporter from ABC on, Mary Bruce. Sunny was asking her questions. Joy is clearly very skeptical. It was a pretty short segment. I was cleaning so wasn't paying alot of attention, but nothing stood out to me as damaging to Biden.

[BudgieForce]

I'm not subscribed to Business Insider, but they have a story saying that  people from Biden's team have gone to look through his archives at the University of Delaware to see if they can find anything related to Reade.

Of course, this isn't going to please the people upset with Biden because his campaign reiterated that they weren't going to release his records to the media. And one can assume if they did find something damaging, they wouldn't release it. But there's also a chance they could find something that could help exonerate him. Honestly, doesn't hurt to check.