Tara Reade Biden allegation megathread

[GeneralMacArthur]

That's some damn good investigating you did there. Although this story shook my trust at first I've always felt like even if he has faults Biden is a good man. He's experienced so much hardship in his life. Maybe this is just an impression, but it's what I feel about him. He seems honest and decent and hard-working.

Unfortunately this whole story will simply divide our party even further. I was a Bernie supporter throughout much of his campaign. Although I'm not particularly left-wing or socialist I liked his progressive policies and the movement he represented. They reflected a sort of compassion I felt that our modern politics is missing. However the attitudes of some Bernie fans irked me. I joined a Bernie club at my Uni, and I gotta admit I didn't like some of the things being said in there. You guys mention ChapoTrapHouse alot, well it's something nearly all of them were fans of. I remember one member arguing to me about how "Americans have been brainwashed to hate communism". I remember dudes saying that if Bernie doesn't win they "can't wait to burn down Milwaukee". I ignored it since I respected Bernie and his movement, I still do, I feel like Bernie is one of the most honest politicians we have, but his refusal to bow out is making him look more and more opportunistic. I don't really think it's Bernie whos peddling this story, but the "Dirtbag Left" who are. Unfortunately his movement which I adored turned out to be a sham, as it failed to materialize votes in the face of consolidation around Biden. All of the people my age I know who backed Bernie refuse to vote for Joe. I feel like the Democratic Party may face an existential threat this November. Young people have heavily broken for Bernie, and many I know will ONLY accept Bernie. I've heard people say that fear of Donald Trump will keep Bernie Bros in line. This is simply not true. Unfortunately this story will certainly further this divide, and alienate more young Bernie voters away from Joe. Hell it nearly alienated me, and I don't even back Bernie anymore.

I wish you could separate the two, but Bernie openly encourages and enlists the help of these dirtbag left people.

It was very obvious in 2016 when his own campaign staff, including his campaign manager, were going around stoking conspiracy theories about the DNC rigging the election and spreading false information about the voting process to make it look unfair.

Two of Bernie's most senior and most visible campaign staff this time around are from the dirtbag left.  Briahna Joy Gray is his national press secretary; formerly she was a columnist for The Intercept and well-known Twitter troll.  David Sirota is his speechwriter; formerly he was a dirtbag left socialist columnist who made his living attacking Hillary Clinton and Bernie's opponents while being paid under the table by Sanders.  And that's just from his senior staff.  He's frequently hired Twitter trolls and disruptors at lower levels of his campaign.  For instance he hired Matt Orfalea.  He hired that latino guy who was going to Biden events shouting and harassing him.  He hired that guy who was using a Twitter alias to write all sorts of nasty things about Bernie's opponents.  And so on.

Members of the Sanders campaign and Sanders himself have gone on TYT and Chapo, or done AMAs on subreddits like /r/WayOfTheBern.  Bernie even endorsed TYT founder Cenk Uygur for Congress, mirroring his endorsement of Russiaphile conspiracy nut Tim Canova in 2016.

This is just who he is and the more you dig into his campaign history and activities the more obvious it becomes.

[VBM]

Biden surrogates are now deleting their Brett Kavanaugh tweets

[VBM]

That's some damn good investigating you did there. Although this story shook my trust at first I've always felt like even if he has faults Biden is a good man. He's experienced so much hardship in his life. Maybe this is just an impression, but it's what I feel about him. He seems honest and decent and hard-working.

Unfortunately this whole story will simply divide our party even further. I was a Bernie supporter throughout much of his campaign. Although I'm not particularly left-wing or socialist I liked his progressive policies and the movement he represented. They reflected a sort of compassion I felt that our modern politics is missing. However the attitudes of some Bernie fans irked me. I joined a Bernie club at my Uni, and I gotta admit I didn't like some of the things being said in there. You guys mention ChapoTrapHouse alot, well it's something nearly all of them were fans of. I remember one member arguing to me about how "Americans have been brainwashed to hate communism". I remember dudes saying that if Bernie doesn't win they "can't wait to burn down Milwaukee". I ignored it since I respected Bernie and his movement, I still do, I feel like Bernie is one of the most honest politicians we have, but his refusal to bow out is making him look more and more opportunistic. I don't really think it's Bernie whos peddling this story, but the "Dirtbag Left" who are. Unfortunately his movement which I adored turned out to be a sham, as it failed to materialize votes in the face of consolidation around Biden. All of the people my age I know who backed Bernie refuse to vote for Joe. I feel like the Democratic Party may face an existential threat this November. Young people have heavily broken for Bernie, and many I know will ONLY accept Bernie. I've heard people say that fear of Donald Trump will keep Bernie Bros in line. This is simply not true. Unfortunately this story will certainly further this divide, and alienate more young Bernie voters away from Joe. Hell it nearly alienated me, and I don't even back Bernie anymore.

I wish you could separate the two, but Bernie openly encourages and enlists the help of these dirtbag left people.

It was very obvious in 2016 when his own campaign staff, including his campaign manager, were going around stoking conspiracy theories about the DNC rigging the election and spreading false information about the voting process to make it look unfair.

Two of Bernie's most senior and most visible campaign staff this time around are from the dirtbag left.  Briahna Joy Gray is his national press secretary; formerly she was a columnist for The Intercept and well-known Twitter troll.  David Sirota is his speechwriter; formerly he was a dirtbag left socialist columnist who made his living attacking Hillary Clinton and Bernie's opponents while being paid under the table by Sanders.  And that's just from his senior staff.  He's frequently hired Twitter trolls and disruptors at lower levels of his campaign.  For instance he hired Matt Orfalea.  He hired that latino guy who was going to Biden events shouting and harassing him.  He hired that guy who was using a Twitter alias to write all sorts of nasty things about Bernie's opponents.  And so on.

Members of the Sanders campaign and Sanders himself have gone on TYT and Chapo, or done AMAs on subreddits like /r/WayOfTheBern.  Bernie even endorsed TYT founder Cenk Uygur for Congress, mirroring his endorsement of Russiaphile conspiracy nut Tim Canova in 2016.

This is just who he is and the more you dig into his campaign history and activities the more obvious it becomes.

I like how anyone who disagrees with you is a dirtbag, troll, or Russian conspiracy theorist

[chibul]

That's some damn good investigating you did there. Although this story shook my trust at first I've always felt like even if he has faults Biden is a good man. He's experienced so much hardship in his life. Maybe this is just an impression, but it's what I feel about him. He seems honest and decent and hard-working.

Unfortunately this whole story will simply divide our party even further. I was a Bernie supporter throughout much of his campaign. Although I'm not particularly left-wing or socialist I liked his progressive policies and the movement he represented. They reflected a sort of compassion I felt that our modern politics is missing. However the attitudes of some Bernie fans irked me. I joined a Bernie club at my Uni, and I gotta admit I didn't like some of the things being said in there. You guys mention ChapoTrapHouse alot, well it's something nearly all of them were fans of. I remember one member arguing to me about how "Americans have been brainwashed to hate communism". I remember dudes saying that if Bernie doesn't win they "can't wait to burn down Milwaukee". I ignored it since I respected Bernie and his movement, I still do, I feel like Bernie is one of the most honest politicians we have, but his refusal to bow out is making him look more and more opportunistic. I don't really think it's Bernie whos peddling this story, but the "Dirtbag Left" who are. Unfortunately his movement which I adored turned out to be a sham, as it failed to materialize votes in the face of consolidation around Biden. All of the people my age I know who backed Bernie refuse to vote for Joe. I feel like the Democratic Party may face an existential threat this November. Young people have heavily broken for Bernie, and many I know will ONLY accept Bernie. I've heard people say that fear of Donald Trump will keep Bernie Bros in line. This is simply not true. Unfortunately this story will certainly further this divide, and alienate more young Bernie voters away from Joe. Hell it nearly alienated me, and I don't even back Bernie anymore.

I wish you could separate the two, but Bernie openly encourages and enlists the help of these dirtbag left people.

It was very obvious in 2016 when his own campaign staff, including his campaign manager, were going around stoking conspiracy theories about the DNC rigging the election and spreading false information about the voting process to make it look unfair.

Two of Bernie's most senior and most visible campaign staff this time around are from the dirtbag left.  Briahna Joy Gray is his national press secretary; formerly she was a columnist for The Intercept and well-known Twitter troll.  David Sirota is his speechwriter; formerly he was a dirtbag left socialist columnist who made his living attacking Hillary Clinton and Bernie's opponents while being paid under the table by Sanders.  And that's just from his senior staff.  He's frequently hired Twitter trolls and disruptors at lower levels of his campaign.  For instance he hired Matt Orfalea.  He hired that latino guy who was going to Biden events shouting and harassing him.  He hired that guy who was using a Twitter alias to write all sorts of nasty things about Bernie's opponents.  And so on.

Members of the Sanders campaign and Sanders himself have gone on TYT and Chapo, or done AMAs on subreddits like /r/WayOfTheBern.  Bernie even endorsed TYT founder Cenk Uygur for Congress, mirroring his endorsement of Russiaphile conspiracy nut Tim Canova in 2016.

This is just who he is and the more you dig into his campaign history and activities the more obvious it becomes.

What is your opinion of Sam Seder? He's a Bernie guy and I listen to his podcast but some of the other people that are cohosts I can't stand like Jamie Peck. I liked some of the guys like Michael Brooks, and Ben Dixon but they've hung on way too long and I think it's doing far more harm than good.

[GeneralMacArthur]

What is your opinion of Sam Seder? He's a Bernie guy and I listen to his podcast but some of the other people that are cohosts I can't stand like Jamie Peck. I liked some of the guys like Michael Brooks, and Ben Dixon but they've hung on way too long and I think it's doing far more harm than good.

Sam Seder is less of an ideological hack than the likes of Kulinski, but none of these YouTube personalities are giving you good information.  They all thrive in this same ecosystem, completely detached from the real world, where they cater to the worldview of Redditors and extremely-online millennials.  Most of them are going to tell you what they think you want to hear so you donate money or build their audience.  If they were actually legitimate, they'd be getting gigs on satellite radio or cable news, not rambling for an hour in a rented recording studio.

I listen to day-after reruns of Julie Mason's daily show on Sirius XM.  I also think Campaign HQ with David Plouffe is pretty good.  For the most part, if you want high-quality analysis and a perspective from what's actually going on, you're gonna have to go to the mainstream media and folks who are actually there on the ground, seeing what's going on, have a long track record of quality, and are held accountable to high journalistic standards.  In general, my strategy for media consumption is to always get as close to the primary source as possible.

These guys on YouTube or SoundCloud just spouting off with their opinions and trying to get Patreon bucks aren't ever gonna measure up.  All they are doing is regurgitating left-wing opinion articles about real news that someone else reported.  Essentially, they are the last telephone in a telephone game where the last 3 telephone operators all have a conspiracy-theory anti-establishment left-wing bias.  They can say crazy s##t, spout off conspiracy theories, lie to you all day, throw temper tantrums on air, and be completely wrong and it won't affect their careers at all.  Anderson Cooper can't do that because he'd lose his reputation and his job.

[Interlocutor is just not there yet]

I guess this has become another "Bernie and all his supporters suck" thread

[redjohn]

Yeah, nothing new, there's no point in reasoning with Biden supporters who are convinced Joe's done nothing wrong despite a record of doing things wrong. Just say you don't care if he assaulted women and be honest, ardent Biden supporters.

[Illini Moderate]

Yeah, nothing new, there's no point in reasoning with Biden supporters who are convinced Joe's done nothing wrong despite a record of doing things wrong. Just say you don't care if he assaulted women and be honest, ardent Biden supporters.

Maybe many people just don't believe that he sexually assaulted this woman? Because she has a shady past and approach to all of this.

[Hindsight was 2020]

Yeah, nothing new, there's no point in reasoning with Biden supporters who are convinced Joe's done nothing wrong despite a record of doing things wrong. Just say you don't care if he assaulted women and be honest, ardent Biden supporters.

Stop being disingenuous. There has been plenty of evidence presented here for why this woman shouldn’t be believed

[brucejoel99]

Yeah, nothing new, there's no point in reasoning with Biden supporters who are convinced Joe's done nothing wrong despite a record of doing things wrong. Just say you don't care if he assaulted women and be honest, ardent Biden supporters.

Maybe many people just don't believe that he sexually assaulted this woman? Because she has a shady past and approach to all of this.

Haha, as if facts & logic still matter.

[Yoda]

Yeah, nothing new, there's no point in reasoning with Biden supporters who are convinced Joe's done nothing wrong despite a record of doing things wrong. Just say you don't care if he assaulted women and be honest, ardent Biden supporters.

This should be pretty obvious at this point in the thread to anyone with grade school level reading comprehension, but it's not that Biden supporters don't care, it's that they (and I'm including myself) believe the accusations are false after reading this woman's bizarre twitter history, weird articles that portray a fetish for Vladimir Putin and Russia, and contradictory statements/timelines. Don't throw that bs at the rest of us and say "be honest" as you're deliberately playing stupid.

[brucejoel99]

Yeah, nothing new, there's no point in reasoning with Biden supporters who are convinced Joe's done nothing wrong despite a record of doing things wrong. Just say you don't care if he assaulted women and be honest, ardent Biden supporters.

This should be pretty obvious at this point in the thread to anyone with grade school level reading comprehension, but it's not that Biden supporters don't care, it's that they (and I'm including myself) believe the accusations are false after reading this woman's bizarre twitter history, weird articles that portray a fetish for Vladimir Putin and Russia, and contradictory statements/timelines. Don't throw that bs at the rest of us and say "be honest" as you're deliberately playing stupid.

Idk about that.

[OSR stands with Israel]

What is your opinion of Sam Seder? He's a Bernie guy and I listen to his podcast but some of the other people that are cohosts I can't stand like Jamie Peck. I liked some of the guys like Michael Brooks, and Ben Dixon but they've hung on way too long and I think it's doing far more harm than good.

Sam Seder is less of an ideological hack than the likes of Kulinski, but none of these YouTube personalities are giving you good information.  They all thrive in this same ecosystem, completely detached from the real world, where they cater to the worldview of Redditors and extremely-online millennials.  Most of them are going to tell you what they think you want to hear so you donate money or build their audience.  If they were actually legitimate, they'd be getting gigs on satellite radio or cable news, not rambling for an hour in a rented recording studio.

I listen to day-after reruns of Julie Mason's daily show on Sirius XM.  I also think Campaign HQ with David Plouffe is pretty good.  For the most part, if you want high-quality analysis and a perspective from what's actually going on, you're gonna have to go to the mainstream media and folks who are actually there on the ground, seeing what's going on, have a long track record of quality, and are held accountable to high journalistic standards.  In general, my strategy for media consumption is to always get as close to the primary source as possible.

Cenk and Ball were literally on MSNBC for a few years and Cenk would have been on longer if he didnt quit due to being mad at not being offered a primetime role lol. Being on a cable news show doesnt make you more credible.


In my opinion Ben Shaprio>>>most cable news anchors by far . He also has had great interviews with people like Stephen Harper, Nikki Haley , Andrew Yang and even people like Neal DeGrasse Tyson.

[BlueSwan]

Yeah, nothing new, there's no point in reasoning with Biden supporters who are convinced Joe's done nothing wrong despite a record of doing things wrong. Just say you don't care if he assaulted women and be honest, ardent Biden supporters.

LOL,

"Biden supporters" is barely even a thing. Biden has never had a cult following. Infact his main problem in this primary was his very lukewarm support. He won because people wanted someone who they thought could beat Trump and that someone was Biden. You may or may not agree with Biden being the most electable - I personally think that several other candidates would have been better - but this was CLEARLY why he won.

So basically the "Biden supporters" are basically just democrats who wants to beat Trump.

While Biden has a loooong history of being very touchy-feely, there has never been any allegations before this one, of any actual direct sexual advances. Infact, even the Biden accusers specifically stated that they did not think his actions were sexual in nature, including Reade herself.

There's very very good reason to believe that these allegations are completely false. GeneralMacArthur laid it all out earlier in the thread and I'd encourage everybody to read it.

[Landslide Lyndon]

So, according to Reade herself she contacted Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, AOC, Ronan Farrow, the New Yorker, New York Times, and Washington Post with her story. All of them ignored her, even Warren and Harris who were running at the time against Biden.
But the Intercept for some reason thought the story was legit. It's one of those things that make you go hmmm...

[brucejoel99]

So, according to Reade herself she contacted Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, AOC, Ronan Farrow, the New Yorker, New York Times, and Washington Post with her story. All of them ignored her, even Warren and Harris who were running at the time against Biden.
But the Intercept for some reason thought the story was legit. It's one of those things that make you go hmmm...

Forget the hmmm, it's one of those things that just makes you call bullsh*t.

[Landslide Lyndon]

So, according to Reade herself she contacted Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, AOC, Ronan Farrow, the New Yorker, New York Times, and Washington Post with her story. All of them ignored her, even Warren and Harris who were running at the time against Biden.
But the Intercept for some reason thought the story was legit. It's one of those things that make you go hmmm...

Forget the hmmm, it's one of those things that just makes you call bullsh*t.

I was trying to be polite.

[BlueSwan]

McArthur could delete the thread, no?

That would be a tragedy. There's a lot of very high quality debunking here. MacArthur should honestly publish an article on it that we could just link to in response to trolls.

[lfromnj]

Are people now trying to shut down Macarthurs debates because it causes drama?
God if you can't handle mildly heated debate on a forum of all places stop reading this forum.

[Holmes]

The fact that Biden surrogates are deleting their Kavanaugh tweets pretty much means they stand for nothing. But at least they recognize their hypocrisy.

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

We don't need a mega thread for such a flimsy and ridiculous accusation.

[brucejoel99]

We don't need a mega thread for such a flimsy and ridiculous accusation.

It was needed because so many individual threads were being created on just one topic. That's typically what qualifies something for a megathread.

[GeneralMacArthur]

Salon has written a relatively fair article about the allegations, although the both-sides-ing is irritating.

https://www.salon.com/2020/03/31/a-woman-accuses-joe-biden-of-sexual-assault-and-all-hell-breaks-loose-online-heres-what-we-know/

It does an especially good job of shutting down the "grand corrupt conspiracy" story written by the idiot Ryan Grim:

It's important to understand here that Time's Up Legal Defense Fund only provides support beyond these referrals — such as PR assistance — if a client obtains a lawyer and moves to take legal action against workplace harassment. But Reade told Salon she wasn't interested in suing Biden. Instead, she was angry "about the smears about being a Russian agent" from Biden supporters and was hoping a lawyer could find a way to stop them.

One law firm Reade spoke with confirmed that they would not take a case with the ambiguous goal of trying to shut down people on social media who were speculating about an accuser being a "Russian agent."

Carrie Goldberg runs a firm dedicated to defending women against sexual abuse. Time's Up helped Reade set up a meeting with her. Goldberg told Salon that she would not "comment on who reaches out to our firm for help" but said that "our firm never hesitates to take on powerful adversaries." She said her firm is not, however, in the business of threatening "to sue conspiracy theorists for potentially protected speech."

I'd like to point out here that three days ago I made two assertions relevant here.  First, based on Tara Reade's social media activity, a lot of her animosity towards Biden seemed to come from the allegations from Bidenworld that she was a Russian kook, not anything Biden himself had ever done.  Second, she only came up with the rape allegation in March after Bernie began losing the primary.

This quote would seem to confirm both.  She tells Salon that she didn't get in contact with TimesUp to tell her rape story, she got in contact to ask them to run PR for her and defend her against the April 2019 Russia allegations.  That she was still contacting professional outfits to defend her from allegations that nobody had been making for nearly nine months is telling about her mental state.

That also further makes Ryan Grim look like a dishonest hack.  His original story implied that Anita Dunn, via her connection with TimesUp, was covering up the rape story.  But Tara Reade never even told the rape story to TimesUp.  She only went to TimesUp to ask them to do online PR for her in her one-sided Twitter battle against Biden supporters who thought she was a crazy person.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

I guess this has become another "Bernie and all his supporters suck" thread

Anyone who is still peddling this despicable false allegation is sociopathic pond scum and can rot in hell as far as I'm concerned.  As for Bernie, he had a moral responsibility to denounce the grifters promoting this.  His failure to do so makes him complicit in it as far as I'm concerned.

[Yoda]

So, according to Reade herself she contacted Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, AOC, Ronan Farrow, the New Yorker, New York Times, and Washington Post with her story. All of them ignored her, even Warren and Harris who were running at the time against Biden.
But the Intercept for some reason thought the story was legit. It's one of those things that make you go hmmm...

It's one of those things that makes you go, "Why didn't she contact a lawyer or the authorities instead of a couple of Democrats running for president and a random congresswoman from new york?" Maybe b/c she didn't want to provide a sworn legal statement and open herself up to perjury and scrutiny?