Tara Reade Biden allegation megathread

[Landslide Lyndon]

I am still uneasy with everything about this. It doesn't seem like it's going to go away.

Here is what Biden needs to do: Hire someone independent of his campaign to gather all evidence proving his innocence. Once this is found, he needs to immediately release it and issue a spoken address denying the allegations, while still being careful not to disparage the accuser. After this, I would just advise them to move on and avoid this topic. Suffocate it, do not give it oxygen.

Not that any amount of evidence will dissuade the Bernie-or-Bust people and the Trumptards. After all, Obama released his long-form birth certificate and you still have millions of people, including elected officials, believing that he was born in Kenya.

[Bidenworth2020]

I found this somewhat interesting, though not surprising, and by no means exonerating.

[Del Tachi]

Humans are complicated. There is no "right way" for someone to interact with their abuser. Think of domestic situations where the wife maintains a relationship with her husband despite abuse. I find it perfectly plausible Reade could've retained respect for Biden and his career (what brought her to his office in the first place) even after the alleged sexual assault happened.

We get it. You want to believe the story, so you're going to find any justification you can.

Tell me, how did Biden engineer the greatest coverup in US history? How did he make sure that none of the dozens of staffers (including some Republicans and probably some fans of the other Democratic candidates) who would have known never talked over nearly 3 decades, even through all the years of vetting and opposition research? Why is the whole Washington machine covering for Biden here?

Maybe you can twist an argument to say that Reade's actions could plausibly happen, just maybe, but there's no way that there's a vast bipartisan conspiracy, including McCain and Romney, to coverup Biden's actions. If Reade is telling the truth, the Deep State is real and QAnon might be too.

Harry, you've worked in a Senate office (IIRC) as have I.  It's an environment where (especially young) people come and go with amazing frequency.  Most people who get there put their heads down and barrel through the work until moving back to the state or Downtown.  It's not an environment really conducive to developing the sort of repertoire with your superiors that is common in most workplaces.  I don't really see what you're getting at when you insist for Reade's story to be true that it must be accompanied with a "Hey guys, we had to let Tara go because she said Joe finger blasted her in the hallway" staff meeting.  What is your reason for thinking that other people in her office at the time would have cared to see her leave or heard her story?

As someone who has worked on the Hill, I just have a hard time seeing how someone (who also worked on the Hill, no less) thinks that in order for Reade's allegations to be true all her coworkers would have had to know about it.  Maybe I'm missing something?

[wbrocks67]

I found this somewhat interesting, though not surprising, and by no means exonerating.

Not exonerating, but if there was a "there" there... I don't imagine it would already be inactive.

[Landslide Lyndon]

I found this somewhat interesting, though not surprising, and by no means exonerating.

Not exonerating, but if there was a "there" there... I don't imagine it would already be inactive.

How can they exonerate Biden when he wasn't even named in Reade's complaint.

[Starry Eyed Jagaloon]

I am still uneasy with everything about this. It doesn't seem like it's going to go away.

Here is what Biden needs to do: Hire someone independent of his campaign to gather all evidence proving his innocence. Once this is found, he needs to immediately release it and issue a spoken address denying the allegations, while still being careful not to disparage the accuser. After this, I would just advise them to move on and avoid this topic. Suffocate it, do not give it oxygen.

Not that any amount of evidence will dissuade the Bernie-or-Bust people and the Trumptards. After all, Obama released his long-form birth certificate and you still have millions of people, including elected officials, believing that he was born in Kenya.

Trying to convince them doesn't matter. What does matter is making sure this doesn't create feelings of doubt in the broader electorate and result in people who would have voted for Joe staying home.

[Starry Eyed Jagaloon]

Humans are complicated. There is no "right way" for someone to interact with their abuser. Think of domestic situations where the wife maintains a relationship with her husband despite abuse. I find it perfectly plausible Reade could've retained respect for Biden and his career (what brought her to his office in the first place) even after the alleged sexual assault happened.

We get it. You want to believe the story, so you're going to find any justification you can.

Tell me, how did Biden engineer the greatest coverup in US history? How did he make sure that none of the dozens of staffers (including some Republicans and probably some fans of the other Democratic candidates) who would have known never talked over nearly 3 decades, even through all the years of vetting and opposition research? Why is the whole Washington machine covering for Biden here?

Maybe you can twist an argument to say that Reade's actions could plausibly happen, just maybe, but there's no way that there's a vast bipartisan conspiracy, including McCain and Romney, to coverup Biden's actions. If Reade is telling the truth, the Deep State is real and QAnon might be too.

Harry, you've worked in a Senate office (IIRC) as have I.  It's an environment where (especially young) people come and go with amazing frequency.  Most people who get there put their heads down and barrel through the work until moving back to the state or Downtown.  It's not an environment really conducive to developing the sort of repertoire with your superiors that is common in most workplaces.  I don't really see what you're getting at when you insist for Reade's story to be true that it must be accompanied with a "Hey guys, we had to let Tara go because she said Joe finger blasted her in the hallway" staff meeting.  What is your reason for thinking that other people in her office at the time would have cared to see her leave or heard her story?

As someone who has worked on the Hill, I just have a hard time seeing how someone (who also worked on the Hill, no less) thinks that in order for Reade's allegations to be true all her coworkers would have had to know about it.  Maybe I'm missing something?

I've worked in the senate too, and the idea that this could casually happen in a senate office hallway is ludicrous. They aren't exactly private. That alone makes this story seriously questionable.

[Bomster]

Humans are complicated. There is no "right way" for someone to interact with their abuser. Think of domestic situations where the wife maintains a relationship with her husband despite abuse. I find it perfectly plausible Reade could've retained respect for Biden and his career (what brought her to his office in the first place) even after the alleged sexual assault happened.

We get it. You want to believe the story, so you're going to find any justification you can.

Tell me, how did Biden engineer the greatest coverup in US history? How did he make sure that none of the dozens of staffers (including some Republicans and probably some fans of the other Democratic candidates) who would have known never talked over nearly 3 decades, even through all the years of vetting and opposition research? Why is the whole Washington machine covering for Biden here?

Maybe you can twist an argument to say that Reade's actions could plausibly happen, just maybe, but there's no way that there's a vast bipartisan conspiracy, including McCain and Romney, to coverup Biden's actions. If Reade is telling the truth, the Deep State is real and QAnon might be too.

Harry, you've worked in a Senate office (IIRC) as have I.  It's an environment where (especially young) people come and go with amazing frequency.  Most people who get there put their heads down and barrel through the work until moving back to the state or Downtown.  It's not an environment really conducive to developing the sort of repertoire with your superiors that is common in most workplaces.  I don't really see what you're getting at when you insist for Reade's story to be true that it must be accompanied with a "Hey guys, we had to let Tara go because she said Joe finger blasted her in the hallway" staff meeting.  What is your reason for thinking that other people in her office at the time would have cared to see her leave or heard her story?

As someone who has worked on the Hill, I just have a hard time seeing how someone (who also worked on the Hill, no less) thinks that in order for Reade's allegations to be true all her coworkers would have had to know about it.  Maybe I'm missing something?

I've worked in the senate too, and the idea that this could casually happen in a senate office hallway is ludicrous. They aren't exactly private. That alone makes this story seriously questionable.

I've never worked in that sort of environment (or at all since I'm a college student) but that part of the story seemed very fishy... I don't understand why so many took a single allegation as truth...

[roxas11]

I am still uneasy with everything about this. It doesn't seem like it's going to go away.

Here is what Biden needs to do: Hire someone independent of his campaign to gather all evidence proving his innocence. Once this is found, he needs to immediately release it and issue a spoken address denying the allegations, while still being careful not to disparage the accuser. After this, I would just advise them to move on and avoid this topic. Suffocate it, do not give it oxygen.

Not that any amount of evidence will dissuade the Bernie-or-Bust people and the Trumptards. After all, Obama released his long-form birth certificate and you still have millions of people, including elected officials, believing that he was born in Kenya.

Trying to convince them doesn't matter. What does matter is making sure this doesn't create feelings of doubt in the broader electorate and result in people who would have voted for Joe staying home.

If the CBO projection about unemployment being over 11 percent on election day turns out to be trump

The Dems could nominate R Kelly and make Bill Cosby his VP and trump would still get landslided out of office lol

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

If Reade is really a Sanders supporter, why would she wait until after the Sanders campaign was hopelessly behind to go public with this allegation?  Why not do it before Super Tuesday at least?

here is her tweet

Can someone translate this for me?

[LimoLiberal]

Why are you guys arguing with an obvious troll?

It’s not helpful to call someone with a dissenting opinion a troll.

Nah, Limo really is a troll, and not a very good one.

This is true.

I don’t know much about Limo, but why do you call him a troll?

I've trolled in the past but I've stopped. The posts in this thread reflect my real opinions on the situation.

*snip*

Obvious lie is obvious

Please link which posts of mine you think are insincere.

[CookieDamage]

So basically Biden was never named in any of these pieces of evidence, not her complaints, not her neighbor's testimony, not her alleged mother's call into Larry King, yet lefties and Trumpites are automatically claiming it's Biden.

Also, I really am not convinced that it was indeed her mother who called into Larry King. Since she's dead, there's really no one other than the accuser who can know for sure it was her.

Ryan Grim, the Intercept, and twitter lefties in general need to start being seen as the dangerous, Trump-aiding meddlers they've been for the past few years.

[roxas11]

If Reade is really a Sanders supporter, why would she wait until after the Sanders campaign was hopelessly behind to go public with this allegation?  Why not do it before Super Tuesday at least?

here is her tweet

Can someone translate this for me?

A tweet response made by Tara just weeks before coming forward with new allegations against Biden  

[7,052,770]

Humans are complicated. There is no "right way" for someone to interact with their abuser. Think of domestic situations where the wife maintains a relationship with her husband despite abuse. I find it perfectly plausible Reade could've retained respect for Biden and his career (what brought her to his office in the first place) even after the alleged sexual assault happened.

We get it. You want to believe the story, so you're going to find any justification you can.

Tell me, how did Biden engineer the greatest coverup in US history? How did he make sure that none of the dozens of staffers (including some Republicans and probably some fans of the other Democratic candidates) who would have known never talked over nearly 3 decades, even through all the years of vetting and opposition research? Why is the whole Washington machine covering for Biden here?

Maybe you can twist an argument to say that Reade's actions could plausibly happen, just maybe, but there's no way that there's a vast bipartisan conspiracy, including McCain and Romney, to coverup Biden's actions. If Reade is telling the truth, the Deep State is real and QAnon might be too.

Harry, you've worked in a Senate office (IIRC) as have I.  It's an environment where (especially young) people come and go with amazing frequency.  Most people who get there put their heads down and barrel through the work until moving back to the state or Downtown.  It's not an environment really conducive to developing the sort of repertoire with your superiors that is common in most workplaces.  I don't really see what you're getting at when you insist for Reade's story to be true that it must be accompanied with a "Hey guys, we had to let Tara go because she said Joe finger blasted her in the hallway" staff meeting.  What is your reason for thinking that other people in her office at the time would have cared to see her leave or heard her story?

As someone who has worked on the Hill, I just have a hard time seeing how someone (who also worked on the Hill, no less) thinks that in order for Reade's allegations to be true all her coworkers would have had to know about it.  Maybe I'm missing something?

She claims to have told multiple people in Biden's office (she has been inconsistent about the exact number) and then filed a formal complaint with the Senate detailing what happened. That's a lot of people to keep a secret for 27 years, with all the research and background checks on Biden over the years. And even if the conspiracy was real, it seems even more far-fetched that every single one of them would continue to keep the secret today, when every major media organization would love to have a scoop that gives it credence.

It would be more believable if she claimed to have never told anyone until 2020.

[KaiserDave]

Has/is BI retracting?

[Crumpets]

The thing I find strangest about this story and the reason I haven't posted much in this thread is what seems to be a huge disconnect between how this is unfolding within Atlas vs. the rest of the political world. If I only had Atlas to go by, I'd think this would be the #2 story in the nation after COVID-19 with major known party gadflies calling for Biden to drop out and Biden holding near-daily press conferences to push back on the allegations. But this doesn't even scratch the surfce of the political discussion elsewhere.

And it's not like I live in some pro-Biden bubble. Dozens of very active Facebook friends are diehard Bernie supporters who post stuff daily hating on Biden, but I rarely see posts about Tara Reade - still the same old "Biden supported the crime bill!" or "Biden voted for Clarence Thomas!" Every now and then someone might post about this, but it really gets lost in the noise. Even on Twitter, (where I spend a decent amount of time for work, even though I'm not an otherwise "active" user") today I saw plenty of tweets about Pelosi endorsing Biden and New York cancelling the primary as evidence of the DNC being corrupt and wanting to destroy Sanders and annoint Biden, but barely anything on Tara Reade except maybe deep in the replies.

If someone has a better lens of what the actual dynamics here are, I'd be curious. I don't watch cable news or listen to the radio, so maybe it's just a question of what medium I'm using? Maybe COVID-19 is just so historically massive that everything else feels completely ignored?

Either way, even if this is true (I still have my doubts, but I'm trying to keep an open mind), I have a hard time seeing it take down Biden or being the difference-maker in November unless there are other women who come forward. Sadly we have short attention spans, and stories like this tend to have their moment in the sun and then fade away. Even if there's a smoking gun in October, the public reaction will probably be something to the effect of "didn't we already talk about this? I thought that was disproven!"

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

If Reade is really a Sanders supporter, why would she wait until after the Sanders campaign was hopelessly behind to go public with this allegation?  Why not do it before Super Tuesday at least?

here is her tweet

Can someone translate this for me?

A tweet response made by Tara just weeks before coming forward with new allegations against Biden  

Right, but what is it supposed to be saying?

[BudgieForce]

Has/is BI retracting?

Why would they? Did I miss something?

[Mr. Illini]

The thing I find strangest about this story and the reason I haven't posted much in this thread is what seems to be a huge disconnect between how this is unfolding within Atlas vs. the rest of the political world. If I only had Atlas to go by, I'd think this would be the #2 story in the nation after COVID-19 with major known party gadflies calling for Biden to drop out and Biden holding near-daily press conferences to push back on the allegations. But this doesn't even scratch the surfce of the political discussion elsewhere.

And it's not like I live in some pro-Biden bubble. Dozens of very active Facebook friends are diehard Bernie supporters who post stuff daily hating on Biden, but I rarely see posts about Tara Reade - still the same old "Biden supported the crime bill!" or "Biden voted for Clarence Thomas!" Every now and then someone might post about this, but it really gets lost in the noise. Even on Twitter, (where I spend a decent amount of time for work, even though I'm not an otherwise "active" user") today I saw plenty of tweets about Pelosi endorsing Biden and New York cancelling the primary as evidence of the DNC being corrupt and wanting to destroy Sanders and annoint Biden, but barely anything on Tara Reade except maybe deep in the replies.

If someone has a better lens of what the actual dynamics here are, I'd be curious. I don't watch cable news or listen to the radio, so maybe it's just a question of what medium I'm using? Maybe COVID-19 is just so historically massive that everything else feels completely ignored?

Either way, even if this is true (I still have my doubts, but I'm trying to keep an open mind), I have a hard time seeing it take down Biden or being the difference-maker in November unless there are other women who come forward. Sadly we have short attention spans, and stories like this tend to have their moment in the sun and then fade away. Even if there's a smoking gun in October, the public reaction will probably be something to the effect of "didn't we already talk about this? I thought that was disproven!"

Most of the coverage on the left is on Twitter. On the other hand, right wing media is running with it. I had a Trump-supporting family member mention it to me and they were bewildered that I hadn't heard of the Larry King tape. Bernie and the left lack a media empire like Fox News.

[roxas11]

If Reade is really a Sanders supporter, why would she wait until after the Sanders campaign was hopelessly behind to go public with this allegation?  Why not do it before Super Tuesday at least?

here is her tweet

Can someone translate this for me?

A tweet response made by Tara just weeks before coming forward with new allegations against Biden  

Right, but what is it supposed to be saying?

she is basically teasing the new Allegation that she is going to drop on Biden with her tic toc at the end of that tweet

she made a bid deal about timing and she definitely wanted to put this out when she felt it would hurt Biden the most. I convinced by that point that she had already believed Bernie was a lost cause and decided to wait and drop it during the general election against trump  

unfortunately for her the coronavirus changed everything
Had the virus never showed up I can imagine the media tuning this into the "Hillary emails" of 2019

[roxas11]

The thing I find strangest about this story and the reason I haven't posted much in this thread is what seems to be a huge disconnect between how this is unfolding within Atlas vs. the rest of the political world. If I only had Atlas to go by, I'd think this would be the #2 story in the nation after COVID-19 with major known party gadflies calling for Biden to drop out and Biden holding near-daily press conferences to push back on the allegations. But this doesn't even scratch the surfce of the political discussion elsewhere.

And it's not like I live in some pro-Biden bubble. Dozens of very active Facebook friends are diehard Bernie supporters who post stuff daily hating on Biden, but I rarely see posts about Tara Reade - still the same old "Biden supported the crime bill!" or "Biden voted for Clarence Thomas!" Every now and then someone might post about this, but it really gets lost in the noise. Even on Twitter, (where I spend a decent amount of time for work, even though I'm not an otherwise "active" user") today I saw plenty of tweets about Pelosi endorsing Biden and New York cancelling the primary as evidence of the DNC being corrupt and wanting to destroy Sanders and annoint Biden, but barely anything on Tara Reade except maybe deep in the replies.

If someone has a better lens of what the actual dynamics here are, I'd be curious. I don't watch cable news or listen to the radio, so maybe it's just a question of what medium I'm using? Maybe COVID-19 is just so historically massive that everything else feels completely ignored?

Either way, even if this is true (I still have my doubts, but I'm trying to keep an open mind), I have a hard time seeing it take down Biden or being the difference-maker in November unless there are other women who come forward. Sadly we have short attention spans, and stories like this tend to have their moment in the sun and then fade away. Even if there's a smoking gun in October, the public reaction will probably be something to the effect of "didn't we already talk about this? I thought that was disproven!"

Most of the coverage on the left is on Twitter. On the other hand, right wing media is running with it. I had a Trump-supporting family member mention it to me and they were bewildered that I hadn't heard of the Larry King tape. Bernie and the left lack a media empire like Fox News.

Im in the opposite situation
outside of this forum Nobody in the real world has brought this up to me or even talked about it
Honestly everybody is still taking about about this virus and getting increasingly very worried about the direction of the economy

[pppolitics]

It was the number one story on Vox a couple of weeks ago. Maybe it's not breaking through in the biggest media organizations, but it's getting plenty of coverage, even if not much of that takes the form of original investigative work. Although it must be admitted that at this point it's not clear how much additional evidence exists.

Does any evidence actually exist?

So far, all we have is he-said-she-said

[Bojack Horseman]

It just might be time to go full-on Mike Madigan and get some opposition search going. We need to completely destroy this woman’s credibility and fast.

[KaiserDave]

It just might be time to go full-on Mike Madigan and get some opposition search going. We need to completely destroy this woman’s credibility and fast.

I don't believe this either but we can we not do this

[GeneralMacArthur]

She claims to have told multiple people in Biden's office (she has been inconsistent about the exact number) and then filed a formal complaint with the Senate detailing what happened. That's a lot of people to keep a secret for 27 years, with all the research and background checks on Biden over the years. And even if the conspiracy was real, it seems even more far-fetched that every single one of them would continue to keep the secret today, when every major media organization would love to have a scoop that gives it credence.

It would be more believable if she claimed to have never told anyone until 2020.

Yeah, exactly.  It would have come up in the 2008 vetting.  Here's how this works:

"Biden had a bunch of people in his employ over 35 years.  We gotta make sure he was never a bad boss.  Let's get his supervisors in here."

"OK ma'am, in strict confidentiality, did you witness anything when you were Biden's chief of staff that might cause trouble if he's the VP nominee?"

"Why yes, in 1993 he raped a girl named Tara.  We covered it all up and paid off everyone in the Senate to keep mum, but she could still go to the press at any time."

and that would be the end of the vetting process.