Tara Reade Biden allegation megathread

[GeneralMacArthur]

Since the other thread was locked, discuss here.

Here are the basics:

Tara Reade worked as an aide in Biden's office for 9 months in the early 1990s.

In April 2019, she came out and said that Biden used to touch her on the shoulder in a way that made her uncomfortable.  She also said that she was asked by his staff to serve drinks at a party, and told by someone that it was because Biden "liked her legs."  She refused to serve drinks, and believed this was why her office was moved to a less-desirable location, which was her given reason (in April 2019) for resigning.

Shortly thereafter, Edward Isaac-Dovere from The Atlantic uncovered blog posts where she claimed she had left the Biden gig, and DC in general, in solidarity with Russia and in protest of American imperialism.  She also wrote adoring blog posts praising Russia and Vladimir Putin "with eyes of love."  She deleted the blog posts and replaced them with a donation page.

What if I told you that everything you learned about Russia was wrong?  President Putin scares the power elite in America because he is a compassionate, caring, visionary leader. … To President Putin, I say keep your eyes to the beautiful future and maybe, just maybe America will come to see Russia as I do, with eyes of love. To all my Russian friends, happy holiday and Happy New Year.

At the time, the blog posts were the end of her credibility.  She was clearly one of those kooky Russia-obsessed RT/Jimmy Dore/Jill Stein people who had been caught lying and then deleted the evidence.  Biden issued a blanket apology for all physical affection throughout his career and has since ceased the practice.

Sometime in February 2020, she got in contact with Time's Up, saying that Biden had raped her.  The group did not want to politicize itself and refused to advocate on her behalf.  Subsequently, she went to Katie Halper and Matt Taibbi, himself a serial sexual predator, and did a podcast interview where she claimed Biden had once pushed her up against a wall and molested her.

Ryan Grim at The Intercept picked up the story, using the angle of a loose connection between Time's Up and the Biden campaign to imply that there was a vast conspiracy to cover up a Biden rape allegation.  The world's most obnoxious pundit and conspiracy theorist, Krystal Ball, also ran with the story.  Krystal Ball, incidentally, works at GOP-owned-and-operated The Hill alongside John Solomon, the original "journalist" behind the Hunter Biden story.

Together with Tara herself, these four began promoting it all over Twitter with the hashtag #IBelieveTara.  Tara herself promoted it along with a lot of pro-Bernie-Sanders language and hashtags, including directly tagging @BernieSanders in one of her accusations.  She has since deleted the "Biden raped me #Bernie2020" tweets.  Meanwhile Sanders groups on social media have been relentlessly promoting the story.  For instance, on the pro-Sanders subreddit /r/PresidentialRaceMemes, every single post on the front page is "Biden is a rapist" memes.  Today pretty much all of social media is Sanders and Trump folks working hand-in-hand to push the idea that Biden is a rapist.

This is how a smear begins, folks.  You are watching the unfolding of a hit on Biden, and it has all the familiar elements from similar hits we saw against Clinton in 2016.  You laugh it off now but in six months social media will be flooded with "Zdravstvuyte fellow progressive, I wish I could vote for Biden since I agree with him on everything but I can't bring myself to vote for a rapist."

[Holmes]

Zdravstvuyte fellow progressives, I wish I could vote for Biden since I agree with him on everything but I can't bring myself to vote for a rapist.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Since its gonna be a close election anyways, anything can happen, and Biden has problems with base, but there is no Gary Johnson out there to give it to Trump. But, this will be exploited against Biden

[brucejoel99]

Let's not give this malarkey story any more oxygen. No reputable outlet is reporting this.

[pppolitics]

The internet never forgets

https://web.archive.org/web/20190404040911/https://medium.com/@shewrites94/bring-on-the-light-bf4e8c859058

“Bring on the Light”

By Alexandra Tara Reade

“ Change your words into truth and then change that truth into love.” Lyrics from the song “As” by Stevie Wonder

What if I told you that everything you learned about Russia was wrong? What if I told you as an American citizen, we have been fed propaganda to further a certain political American agenda? What if I told you actually we are “the bad guys” ? That we were on the wrong side of history?

Our American empire is falling and failing, not because of some imagined threat from a foreign nation but because of our collective greed. Greed is what runs our economy and greed is what will destroy America.

I am not being paid to write my political opinions nor am I being hired by someone to do it. I am writing about this subject for the same reason I got into politics; I care for my local community and my global community. I believe in service to my fellow citizens is the most important work I will ever do. I love my country but I see the reality of our collective dysfunction and our need to move in a better direction.

When I was in my early twenties and just out of college, I began my journey into politics. I left that political work behind a few years ago. I resigned my position and took myself out of the Washington DC beltway. Why? First, I started as an actor in classical theatre, an artist and writer before Washington DC. This work in the arts has always been my first love and best vocation. Second, I saw the reckless imperialism of America and the pain it caused through out the world. Third, I love Russia with all my heart. I love the people, the history, the culture and even my attempts to learn the language. I could not stand to watch the deception and xenophobia that came from my own American government. It is so sad and destructive to revile another culture or country for no reason but economic gain.

President Putin scares the power elite in America because he is a compassionate, caring, visionary leader. President Putin has higher approval ratings in America then the American President. President Putin is beloved by Russia and he not going anywhere. Instead of being ensnared in the recent political intrigues (and America is trying hard to set that trap). President Putin is keeping a calm focus on his own country’s development and future, without America.

To President Putin, I say keep your eyes to the beautiful future and maybe, just maybe America will come to see Russia as I do, with eyes of love. To all my Russian friends, happy holiday and Happy New Year.

[Yank2133]

Lady Gaga was right: "Social Media is the toilet of the internet"

Just ignore it.

If this gets picked up by reputable sources, than we can have a serious discussion on it. But at the moment, no one worth their salt is touching this story with a ten foot pole. And thats probably because they cant corroborate any of the facts.

And honestly, I'm less worried about this getting shared among social media accounts than I would have been in 2016. The hate and vitriol towards Biden on twitter seems exponentially louder than it was against Hillary in 2016, yet Biden is significantly outperforming her.

That is because mainstream media was also in on the Clinton bashing. No one in mainstream media hates Biden, so most of this stuff goes no where. Bernie hacks are going to learn that they were always irrelevant.

[GeneralMacArthur]

The hate and vitriol towards Biden on twitter seems exponentially louder than it was against Hillary in 2016

It's a finely-tuned disinformation machine at this point.  As soon as someone comes up with a new story damaging to the Democratic Party or its desired nominees, or favorable to Sanders/Trump, you can predict exactly how it will spread and who will play what role.

And you can just as easily predict which Atlas users will be on here buying into it 100%.

[Catalyst138]

“When a woman alleges sexual assault, presume she is telling the truth.”
-Joe Biden, 2018

I don’t think we can yet accurately tell if these allegations are true or not. To blindly accept that Biden is a rapist would be foolish, but confidently proclaiming that it’s all fake isn’t the best idea either.

What I’ve seen is that everyone who likes Biden thinks it’s all fake, and everyone who doesn’t like Biden thinks he’s clearly a rapist. Not much unbiased stuff floating around.

[pppolitics]

“When a woman alleges sexual assault, presume she is telling the truth.”
-Joe Biden, 2018

I don’t think we can yet accurately tell if these allegations are true or not. To blindly accept that Biden is a rapist would be foolish, but confidently proclaiming that it’s all fake isn’t the best idea either.

What I’ve seen is that everyone who likes Biden thinks it’s all fake, and everyone who doesn’t like Biden thinks he’s clearly a rapist. Not much unbiased stuff floating around.

What reasons could there be to doubt Comrade Reade?

[GeneralMacArthur]

Folks need to stop taking the whole "Believe women" thing out of context.

The context is, prior to #MeToo, when women would go to police officers or their HR department or their friends/family and talk about being sexually harassed or assaulted or raped, they would get laughed off or blamed or ignored.

The point was, hey authority figures, stop doing that, treat these claims seriously.  It's your job.  Do a rape kit test, investigate if the claim is credible, and if it is then pursue action.

The point was not, hey voters, this rando crazy person says Joe Biden raped her, now you have to believe it.

[Frozen Sky Ever Why]

Krystal Ball is the bane of humanity.

[Hindsight was 2020]

“When a woman alleges sexual assault, presume she is telling the truth.”
-Joe Biden, 2018

I don’t think we can yet accurately tell if these allegations are true or not. To blindly accept that Biden is a rapist would be foolish, but confidently proclaiming that it’s all fake isn’t the best idea either.

What I’ve seen is that everyone who likes Biden thinks it’s all fake, and everyone who doesn’t like Biden thinks he’s clearly a rapist. Not much unbiased stuff floating around.

Not true I’m a Bernie guy who written some anti-Biden threads here and even I think this is a bs being deliberately pushed by the worst parts of rose Twitter

[Lord Halifax]

Since the other thread was locked, discuss here.

None of us know whether the allegations are "false", so you should remove that word from the title.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Zdravstvuyte fellow progressives, I wish I could vote for Biden since I agree with him on everything but I can't bring myself to vote for a rapist.

Luckily, he isn't one, so you can still vote for him.

[Lord Halifax]

Since the other thread was locked, discuss here.

None of us know whether the allegations are "false", so you should remove that word from the title.

Which is also part of the issue. Usually these stories get looked into by media outlets before they get printed. I dont think The Intercept holds itself to the same standards.

Let's see if the MSM start doing their job or not. But that doesn't change the fact that the title should be changed.

[Lord Halifax]

Zdravstvuyte fellow progressives, I wish I could vote for Biden since I agree with him on everything but I can't bring myself to vote for a rapist.

Luckily, he isn't one, so you can still vote for him.

You don't know, so stop pretending you do.

[Landslide Lyndon]

The Intercept is just another conduit of Russian misinformation, and it's not like they are discreet about it.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Zdravstvuyte fellow progressives, I wish I could vote for Biden since I agree with him on everything but I can't bring myself to vote for a rapist.

Luckily, he isn't one, so you can still vote for him.

You don't know, so stop pretending you do.

Helping spread false rape allegations isn't gonna change the fact that Biden won the Democratic nomination; it just makes you a terrible person.

[wbrocks67]

The point of #MeToo IS to believe women. But this entire thing has all the makings of a weird shady lie. I don't want to instantly dismiss her, but she literally has a tweet about it that also has #BernieSanders2020 in it. Then all of the tweets about her pro-Putin propaganda came out. This also all came out back in 2019, when all of her Russia love letters resurfaced as well.

Plus, the fact that only The Intercept and far-right outlets are reporting this, along with pro-Bernie fanatics on Twitter, makes it seem like it's totally an orchestrated event to hurt Biden. The people with the mosts RTs about it are mostly Bernie hacks, so...

[wbrocks67]

Like if you are trying to get your story across and be seen as legitimate, why are you also asking Bernie Sanders to RT in it and hashtagging Bernie 2020? That does not make you look like you are trying to make a legitimate claim.

https://twitter.com/ReadeAlexandra/status/1242546436304072704?ref_src=twsrc%5Etf...

[Lord Halifax]

Zdravstvuyte fellow progressives, I wish I could vote for Biden since I agree with him on everything but I can't bring myself to vote for a rapist.

Luckily, he isn't one, so you can still vote for him.

You don't know, so stop pretending you do.

Helping spread false rape allegations isn't gonna change the fact that Biden won the Democratic nomination; it just makes you a terrible person.

Again, you don't know if their false, and dismissing sexual assault allegations as false without knowing the facts make you are horrible person.

Also, I'm not "trying to change the fact that Biden won the Democratic nomination", that's a ridiculous thing to say.

[#TheShadowyAbyss]

This woman changed her story twice and no credible source and even Times Up wont even touch it. It's clearly a hit job on Biden

[Hindsight was 2020]

Zdravstvuyte fellow progressives, I wish I could vote for Biden since I agree with him on everything but I can't bring myself to vote for a rapist.

Luckily, he isn't one, so you can still vote for him.

You don't know, so stop pretending you do.

Helping spread false rape allegations isn't gonna change the fact that Biden won the Democratic nomination; it just makes you a terrible person.

Again, you don't know if their false, and dismissing sexual assault allegations as false without knowing the facts make you are horrible person.

Also, I'm not "trying to change the fact that Biden won the Democratic nomination", that's a ridiculous thing to say.

I’m sorry but there is plenty of evidence on the ground already to think this story is false. Like you wanna get on people here for saying it’s false but it’s kinda just as bad to be treating the allegations as true when they is plenty of reason to doubt.

[Lord Halifax]

This woman changed her story twice and no credible source and even Times Up wont even touch it. It's clearly a hit job on Biden

She told two people at the time and claims she reported it at the time (that needs to be checked ofc).

Biden's campaign manager Anita Dunn is on the Times Up board, so them ignoring it is no surprise.

[Hindsight was 2020]

This woman changed her story twice and no credible source and even Times Up wont even touch it. It's clearly a hit job on Biden

She told two people at the time and claims she reported it at the time (that needs to be checked ofc).

Biden's campaign manager Anita Dunn is on the Times Up board, so them ignoring it is no surprise.

I like how you just assume that Time’s Up turned her down because of Dunn but think it’s outrageous for any of us to think she is lying when she is tagging Bernie is her tweets about the allegations