Tara Reade Biden allegation megathread

[GeneralMacArthur]

Yep.  Attack your opponent whether they're strong.  Thanks Karl Rove.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Even though these allegations are questionable at best, the Biden campaign really needs to do more to get out in front of this. I wouldn't put it past Trump to draw attention to it, thus forcing the media to cover it.

If Trump wants to make an issue out of which candidate is a sexual predator, let him do it.

That's not how this works. Nobody whose mind isn't already made up is going to ask themselves which is more of a predator; if there's plausible reason to think either is a predator then to the average voter they're more or less equivalent on this front.

Trump won by muddying the waters on Clinton, getting people to ignore his obvious corruption by putting enough hot air about how corrupt she was. Did it matter the difference in magnitude or veracity? Not to a person who wasn't paying close attention or who already had an extremely cynical view of politics, which many voters do.

If you let Trump dominate the narrative on this then he will make a field day out of it, especially if it undercuts Biden's campaign centerpiece of a return to decency.

My point still stands. There is no reason for the media and ostensibly progressive groups to make it easy for Trump. If they looked at Reade's allegations and found nothing then why give it any coverage at all?

Not to mention that the media don't have for Biden the obsessive, all-consuming hate they had for Clinton.

[Crumpets]

Yep.  Attack your opponent whether they're strong.  Thanks Karl Rove.

I really hope Democrats learn this lesson soon. Trump is a weak leader who has no sense of loyalty to this country. That should be the basis of all attacks against him. Not "muh political norms!" If we focus on why Trump is a bad fit for the office of the presidency because of his personality, he wins.

[chibul]

My first instinct was to dismiss this story based on the people purveying it. The alt-media-sphere has made plenty of dumb attacks on Joe Biden over the past year. Their agenda was easy to see, and, frankly, the intended audience wasn't all that smart.

However, the prominence of the Russia angle in the push-back against Reade made me pause. That detail has nothing to do with Reade's allegations. Her unstable personal history and esoteric political beliefs are emphasized purely to discredit her, and would be equally effective whether her allegations were actually true or false.

This Salon piece, written by Amanda Marcotte of all people, is somehow more on the mark than anything else that I've read on the subject: (1) We don't know very much about Reade's accusations at this point; (2) Most of what has been published on them is speculative garbage; and (3) the best response is neither to dismiss the claims nor to amplify them, but instead to demand sober investigative journalism from mainstream sources.

In the meantime, please don't use this as a political cudgel against either Joe Biden or Me Too.

I agree with this entirely, and I haven't followed this story at all because there's been such a dearth of quality investigation.

The problem with waiting for this to ride out in an investigation is the people who are most invested in seeing the allegations proven true (Trump supporters and, apparently, Sanders supporters) are the people who are most likely to dismiss a serious investigation which is exonerating. Both of these campaigns are centered around distrust of authority and ultimately dismiss anything a qualified person would put out that contradicts their views as evidence of media/elite corruption. I am sure once a serious investigation is done (fingers crossed), if these allegations are not credible, it will just be used as confirmation that person/organization X is covering up for Biden.

It's a fascinating example of a general dynamic that's been animating the last ten years of politics on the right and the last five years of politics on the far left.

The thing is that there isn't going to be an investigation.  This story is about as credible as if General MacArthur on Atlas forum said that Donald Trump molested me.  What's there to investigate?  I have zero evidence supporting my claim.  You can go try and build the case that it's false by doxxing me and finding out that I'm a crazy person who lives in a van by the river with "DEATH TO TRUMP" graffitied on it, but if every journalist put in the effort to pursue every inflammatory claim made by random people on social media, we'd never get any real journalism done.

In the year since the original "Biden touched my shoulder" piece, Tara Reade tweeted about Biden hundreds of times and most of those tweets got zero engagement.  She was just a nobody on social media.  The only reason this has gotten as far as it has is that Katie Halper, Ryan Grim and Krystal Ball saw an opportunity to launch a random person into the spotlight as a last-ditch anti-Biden effort.  Their story (about a Time's Up cover-up) was a lie, but the damage was done.  Other than the malicious willpower of Halper/Grim/Ball, there's nothing that makes this story, on its own, any more credible or newsworthy than if one of us were to make a similar claim.

Of course, this story isn't just a random person on Twitter, because it has gotten a lot of traction in far-left circles, and the usual suspects have made a lot of memes about Joe Biden being a rapist.  Does that in and of itself make the story newsworthy and worth pursuing?  I would argue no.  Serious journalistic outlets can't be held captive to the whims and wishes of extremists on social media.  If they turn around tomorrow and start propagating a story about Joe Biden running a pizza parlor pedophile ring, is that story then newsworthy purely by virtue of its getting traction with extremists?  Should NYT go investigate the pizza parlor?  No.  If it's covered seriously at all, it should only be from the angle of "here's what those lying sociopaths are saying now."

I agree but I think the one thing that makes it somewhat credible is that I have yet to hear anybody say that they she was not a Biden staffer. She does have a connection to Biden, which makes it more believable than if you just came out and claimed Trump molested you in a van.

[Bojack Horseman]

Even though these allegations are questionable at best, the Biden campaign really needs to do more to get out in front of this. I wouldn't put it past Trump to draw attention to it, thus forcing the media to cover it.

If Trump wants to make an issue out of which candidate is a sexual predator, let him do it.
In the meantime there is no reason for mainstream media and progressives to do his dirty work.

That's not the goal. The goal is to sew discord among Democrats. I keep seeing tons of people saying "I don't care if Trump is re-elected, I'm not voting for Biden because he's a rapist!" When I point out the major inconsistencies in her story and the fact that the media has already found that she's full of crap, I get told to shut the f(inks) up bEcAuSe i'M A sExUaL aSsAuLt sUrViVoR aNd wE bElIeVe aLl wOmEn!!!!

My response to that is that I was molested at 10 by my cousin. I chose a long time ago to move on because dwelling on it/being mad about it won't do anything to change it and you should too.

[Grassroots]

I find it interesting that Trump hasn't even mentioned this.

If the father of childish name calling and insults hasn't jumped on this, you can tell there's no juice in the meat. It's bogus, and even Bernie supporters are laying off on it.

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

I've been talking that the story is too big to ignore it and that MSM will have to cover it at some point. My posts were deleting as "trolling". Well...


https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/us/politics/joe-biden-tara-reade-sexual-assault-complaint.html
Examining Tara Reade’s Sexual Assault Allegation Against Joe Biden
Ms. Reade, a former Senate aide, has accused Mr. Biden of assaulting her in 1993 and says she told others about it. A Biden spokeswoman said the allegation is false, and former Senate office staff members do not recall such an incident.

A former Senate aide who last year accused Joseph R. Biden Jr. of inappropriate touching has made an allegation of sexual assault against the former vice president, the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee this fall.

Ms. Reade said that she could not remember the exact time, date or location of the assault but that it occurred in a “semiprivate” place in the Senate office complex.

A friend said that Ms. Reade told her about the alleged assault at the time, in 1993. A second friend recalled Ms. Reade telling her in 2008 that Mr. Biden had touched her inappropriately and that she’d had a traumatic experience while working in his office. Both friends agreed to speak to The Times on the condition of anonymity to protect the privacy of their families and their self-owned businesses.

As it has for thousands of people who have contacted the group, Time’s Up, which does not represent clients, gave her a list of lawyers with expertise in such cases. She said she contacted every single one but none took her case. Two lawyers confirmed speaking to Ms. Reade but declined to comment on the record about her or the allegation.

Read the whole article. It is a good (aside their muh Trump has history of allegations, too) and balanced article, where her story, including inconsistencies, is examined. It is nor a exoneration, nor a confirmation.

Obviously, it is not enough, and ,hopefully, WaPo and others will publish their thorough investigations as well.

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

NYT is pouring cold water on the allegations.

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1249270881936904192?s=21

[Brittain33]

NYT is pouring cold water on the allegations.

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1249270881936904192?s=21

I wouldn’t call that pouring cold water.

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

NYT is pouring cold water on the allegations.

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1249270881936904192?s=21

Friendly reminder

https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1248684030129844226




[tin foil hat]Conveniently, the story comes a couple days after Bernie dropped out[/tin foil hat]

[Donerail]

"We found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Biden, beyond ... touching that women previously said made them uncomfortable" is a hell of a sentence to write

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

NYT is pouring cold water on the allegations.

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1249270881936904192?s=21

I wouldn’t call that pouring cold water.

I think they’re pretty much saying they found nothing in the accusation.

[wbrocks67]

NYT is pouring cold water on the allegations.

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1249270881936904192?s=21

I wouldn’t call that pouring cold water.

I think they’re pretty much saying they found nothing in the accusation.

I read the whole article. Can confirm. They talk about her accusation, but also add that their investigation turned up nothing new and pointed out inconsistencies in her story.

[Amanda Huggenkiss]

I find it interesting that Trump hasn't even mentioned this.

If the father of childish name calling and insults hasn't jumped on this, you can tell there's no juice in the meat. It's bogus, and even Bernie supporters are laying off on it.

Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones

[Brittain33]

NYT is pouring cold water on the allegations.

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1249270881936904192?s=21

I wouldn’t call that pouring cold water.

I think they’re pretty much saying they found nothing in the accusation.

I read it as saying here's the accusation and she told friends about it at the time. They then presented everything else we know, which is that there are no other accusations like this. Whatever else you can say, the fact she told other people at the time was considered evidence for Blasey Ford, so it takes this one step above a completely unsourced accusation.

I don't know where further anyone can go from here, and certainly there are plenty of sexual assualt allegations against Trump that never get more than passing coverage.

[wbrocks67]

I know the article can't completely tear down her character, but I don't think it delved enough into her clearly unhinged tweets and messages. It made her out to be a completely sane actor, not someone who was tagging #BernieSanders2020 in her tweets about the allegations.

[Grassroots]

I find it interesting that Trump hasn't even mentioned this.

If the father of childish name calling and insults hasn't jumped on this, you can tell there's no juice in the meat. It's bogus, and even Bernie supporters are laying off on it.

Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones

How am I in a glass house, explain.

[NeederNodder]

I find it interesting that Trump hasn't even mentioned this.

If the father of childish name calling and insults hasn't jumped on this, you can tell there's no juice in the meat. It's bogus, and even Bernie supporters are laying off on it.

He'll get to it sooner than later. Don Jr. already tweeted about it and guys like Hannity and Tucker Carlson will likely be pushing the story more as we head to November.

[Amanda Huggenkiss]

How am I in a glass house, explain.

You aren't, Trump is. I did not mean to refer that to you.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

I don't know if it's real or not, but the workplace retribution stuff will always make me uncomfortably squirmish because you see that happening constantly today, and I have no reason to trust any major company not to go after the victim in spite of their PR language. But that just means she knows the typical pattern these things follow. And I don't think the initial actions are necessarily vile (the initial actions seem relatively benign* based on public information and the expectations I have of public figures), it's the backlash that's disconcerting. And you'd think there is some record of that if it were real.

*Benign not meaning all OK, but a mistake that we have to accept

[Bidenworth2020]

Her police report literally didn't mention Biden's name.

NYT spent weeks interviewing people and searching for evidence and came up with nothing to support her accusation not already found.

This really should not be taken seriously, unless new evidence actually comes up to support her accusation.

[GeneralMacArthur]

NYT article is frustrating.  It reports, uncritically, many of Tara Reade's statements that are demonstrably false.

For instance,

She said office staff took away most of her duties, including supervising the interns; assigned her a windowless office; and made the work environment uncomfortable for her.

She said Mr. Kaufman later told her she was not a good fit in the office, giving her a month to look for a job. Ms. Reade never secured another position in Washington.

This whole section reports, as fact, Reade's January 2020 description of her exit from Biden's office.  But she's told four different stories.  NYT abstains from reporting on the inconsistencies in her different stories.  In fact, what's printed here isn't even Reade's current story.  Her current story is that Biden personally fired her as retaliation after she filed a Senate complaint against him for raping her.  NYT just refuses to report any of this even though it's one of the main pieces of evidence that Reade is lying.

Ms. Reade said she faced a wave of criticism and death threats, as well as accusations that she was a Russian agent because of Medium posts and tweets, several of which are now deleted, she had written praising President Vladimir Putin.

Ms. Reade said that she was not working for Russia and did not support Mr. Putin, and that her comments were pulled out of context from a novel she was writing at the time.

“It was trying to smear me and distract from what happened, but it won’t change the facts of what happened in 1993,” she said.

She called her praise for Mr. Putin “misguided.”

This is the most Reade-favorable way you could possibly report this.  The comments were not "pulled out-of-context from a novel she was writing at the time."  That's just a complete lie.  And the posts weren't just "praising Vladimir Putin."  That makes them sound benign; in actuality, they were crazy.

As it has for thousands of people who have contacted the group, the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, which does not represent clients, gave her a list of lawyers with expertise in such cases. She said she contacted every single one but none took her case. Two lawyers confirmed speaking to Ms. Reade but declined to comment on the record about her or the allegation.

NYT declines to include that the lawyers also said that Reade didn't come to them for help with a rape allegation, she came to them asking them to defend her on social media on the Russia subject.  IMO this is an important detail because it shows her lack of interest in pursuing this case in any non-political venue.  It's similar to the start of the article which reveals she just filed a police report... without Biden's name!  What could this pattern mean?


Also, Lucy Flores is absolutely not helping with her "maybe it did happen, maybe it didn't" song-and-dance.  Wtf.

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

I know the article can't completely tear down her character, but I don't think it delved enough into her clearly unhinged tweets and messages. It made her out to be a completely sane actor, not someone who was tagging #BernieSanders2020 in her tweets about the allegations.

About her character. If anything, NyT depicts her as a caring, but naïve woman and a single mom with tuff life who worked as "an advocate for domestic violence survivors, testifying as an expert witness in court".

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/us/politics/joe-biden-tara-reade-sexual-assault-complaint.html

At the time of the alleged assault, Ms. Reade said she was responsible for coordinating the interns in the office. Two former interns who worked with her said they never heard her describe any inappropriate conduct by Mr. Biden or saw her directly interact with him in any capacity but recalled that she abruptly stopped supervising them in April, before the end of their internship. Others who worked in the office at the time said they remembered Ms. Reade but not any inappropriate behavior.

Friends and former co-workers describe Ms. Reade as friendly, caring, compassionate and trustworthy, though perhaps a bit naïve. A single mother, she changed her name for protection after leaving an abusive marriage in the late 1990s and put herself through law school in Seattle. After leaving Mr. Biden’s office, she eventually returned to the West Coast, where she worked for a state senator; as an advocate for domestic violence survivors, testifying as an expert witness in court; and for animal rescue organizations.

Obviously, it doesn't prove anything... _{same as with Kavanaugh.}

[Grassroots]

How am I in a glass house, explain.

You aren't, Trump is. I did not mean to refer that to you.

I don't support Trump.

[Bidenworth2020]

NYT article is frustrating.  It reports, uncritically, many of Tara Reade's statements that are demonstrably false.

For instance,

She said office staff took away most of her duties, including supervising the interns; assigned her a windowless office; and made the work environment uncomfortable for her.

She said Mr. Kaufman later told her she was not a good fit in the office, giving her a month to look for a job. Ms. Reade never secured another position in Washington.

This whole section reports, as fact, Reade's January 2020 description of her exit from Biden's office.  But she's told four different stories.  NYT abstains from reporting on the inconsistencies in her different stories.  In fact, what's printed here isn't even Reade's current story.  Her current story is that Biden personally fired her as retaliation after she filed a Senate complaint against him for raping her.  NYT just refuses to report any of this even though it's one of the main pieces of evidence that Reade is lying.

Ms. Reade said she faced a wave of criticism and death threats, as well as accusations that she was a Russian agent because of Medium posts and tweets, several of which are now deleted, she had written praising President Vladimir Putin.

Ms. Reade said that she was not working for Russia and did not support Mr. Putin, and that her comments were pulled out of context from a novel she was writing at the time.

“It was trying to smear me and distract from what happened, but it won’t change the facts of what happened in 1993,” she said.

She called her praise for Mr. Putin “misguided.”

This is the most Reade-favorable way you could possibly report this.  The comments were not "pulled out-of-context from a novel she was writing at the time."  That's just a complete lie.  And the posts weren't just "praising Vladimir Putin."  That makes them sound benign; in actuality, they were crazy.

As it has for thousands of people who have contacted the group, the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, which does not represent clients, gave her a list of lawyers with expertise in such cases. She said she contacted every single one but none took her case. Two lawyers confirmed speaking to Ms. Reade but declined to comment on the record about her or the allegation.

NYT declines to include that the lawyers also said that Reade didn't come to them for help with a rape allegation, she came to them asking them to defend her on social media on the Russia subject.  IMO this is an important detail because it shows her lack of interest in pursuing this case in any non-political venue.  It's similar to the start of the article which reveals she just filed a police report... without Biden's name!  What could this pattern mean?


Also, Lucy Flores is absolutely not helping with her "maybe it did happen, maybe it didn't" song-and-dance.  Wtf.

Kind of crazy some dude on an internet forum can come up with more information than a goddamn NYT article in some areas. Really frustrating that they didn't bother to even look through her differing stories.