Tara Reade rape allegation aftermath megathread

[GeneralMacArthur]

That may be the most blatant and disgusting political ad I've ever seen.  Didn't really expect that from Club For Growth of all places.  I would expect some Breitbart-aligned Trump-y Super PAC, not a classic GOP PAC.

I hope they run it on lots and lots of channels and repulse lots and lots of people.

[pppolitics]

https://twitter.com/natashakorecki/status/1265494148573954051

[BudgieForce]

Please dont @pppolitics

[Bidenworth2020]

Let's not with the memes

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

Biden is finished. We can all see the writing on the wall. It's the last moment to replace him on the ticket with someone electable like Evan Bayh or Sam Nunn.

Its possible. Nunn, Bayh, and Sherrod Brown may emerge as white knights.

I don’t know what’s funnier: you or Bomster missing the sarcasm.

[Bomster]

Biden is finished. We can all see the writing on the wall. It's the last moment to replace him on the ticket with someone electable like Evan Bayh or Sam Nunn.

Its possible. Nunn, Bayh, and Sherrod Brown may emerge as white knights.

I don’t know what’s funnier: you or Bomster missing the sarcasm.

I thought it was a joke about 1988? Or 2008.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

https://twitter.com/Bencjacobs/status/1264681648773357568

Omar is an idiot and takes the bait.

Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party should rescind their support.

https://twitter.com/StarTribune/status/1264695397789896706

Omar may challenge Klobuchar in 2024.

...in other words, a suicide mission

[pppolitics]

https://twitter.com/AP/status/1265814065097687040

[QAnonKelly]

https://twitter.com/AP/status/1265814065097687040

Vet your sources, people.

[GeneralMacArthur]

This story is in such a frustrating state at this point.

On the one hand, it's been thoroughly discredited, and we have a pretty steady drip-drip-drip of "Tara Reade lied in court to send people to jail" or "Tara Reade stole $30,000 from an orphanage" or "Tara Reade kidnapped her neighbor's dog and sold it on eBay" stories.

On the other hand, we still have people like Ilhan Omar using Tara Reade to attack Biden, the socialists are still making "rapist vs. rapist 2020" memes, and if you put out a poll today I bet a healthy plurality of Americans would still say they believe this story.

My immediate family members, all card-carrying Democrats, do not believe Tara Reade, but they are not aware of any of these new developments and are still of the "she should have her story heard, it should be investigated, but I don't believe he did it" mindset that is based on April information.

We really need one solid news cycle with Tara Reade as the top story, giving people the lowdown on new developments.  The last news cycle we had where this was the #1 story was "Biden is hiding something in the U. of Delaware archives."

[vitoNova]

Tara Reade is an obese teabagger nutjob.

[BlueSwan]

This story is in such a frustrating state at this point.

On the one hand, it's been thoroughly discredited, and we have a pretty steady drip-drip-drip of "Tara Reade lied in court to send people to jail" or "Tara Reade stole $30,000 from an orphanage" or "Tara Reade kidnapped her neighbor's dog and sold it on eBay" stories.

On the other hand, we still have people like Ilhan Omar using Tara Reade to attack Biden, the socialists are still making "rapist vs. rapist 2020" memes, and if you put out a poll today I bet a healthy plurality of Americans would still say they believe this story.

My immediate family members, all card-carrying Democrats, do not believe Tara Reade, but they are not aware of any of these new developments and are still of the "she should have her story heard, it should be investigated, but I don't believe he did it" mindset that is based on April information.

We really need one solid news cycle with Tara Reade as the top story, giving people the lowdown on new developments.  The last news cycle we had where this was the #1 story was "Biden is hiding something in the U. of Delaware archives."

I agree. It is typical that the accusations themselves get massive exposure and that people who harbors ill will towards Biden will continue to peddle these lies, while the debunking stories get rather little attention.

[wbrocks67]

I'm just glad that the "OPEN THE SENATE FILES!!!!" seems to have died for good, b/c that would've been a truly unbearable news cycle

[pppolitics]

This story is in such a frustrating state at this point.

On the one hand, it's been thoroughly discredited, and we have a pretty steady drip-drip-drip of "Tara Reade lied in court to send people to jail" or "Tara Reade stole $30,000 from an orphanage" or "Tara Reade kidnapped her neighbor's dog and sold it on eBay" stories.

On the other hand, we still have people like Ilhan Omar using Tara Reade to attack Biden, the socialists are still making "rapist vs. rapist 2020" memes, and if you put out a poll today I bet a healthy plurality of Americans would still say they believe this story.

My immediate family members, all card-carrying Democrats, do not believe Tara Reade, but they are not aware of any of these new developments and are still of the "she should have her story heard, it should be investigated, but I don't believe he did it" mindset that is based on April information.

We really need one solid news cycle with Tara Reade as the top story, giving people the lowdown on new developments.  The last news cycle we had where this was the #1 story was "Biden is hiding something in the U. of Delaware archives."

You are wrong if you think that it changes anything.

People who believe the allegation do so out of political expediency (i.e. Trumpers, Bernie Bros, DSA).

Even if Reade gets charged with perjury, they will just say, "...oh, but that doesn't mean that Biden didn't sexually assaulted her".

[Stranger in a strange land]

https://twitter.com/AP/status/1265814065097687040

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

[pppolitics]

How The Left-Wing Media Botched The Tara Reade Story

A memorable lesson in journalism that I learned during an internship in college came from the dull task of writing out the arrest reports. My editor warned me to state that a suspect was arrested “on a charge” of a crime, not “for” it, because even so subtle a difference in wording in such a small, quotidian item would imply guilt and be grounds for a libel suit if the suspect were acquitted.

I couldn’t help thinking back to the lessons of my cub reporter days as I read about Tara Reade’s sexual assault allegation against Joe Biden –- and witnessed its mishandling by several left-wing “activist journalists.”

In their zeal to boost Reade’s accusation and lend credence to her claims, people like podcaster Katie Halper, Current Affairs editor Nathan Robinson, and many others effectively presumed Biden’s guilt. But mounting evidence has raised serious doubts about the veracity of Reade’s allegation and her own credibility — mounting evidence uncovered, I should add, by professionally trained journalists who actually knew what they were doing.

https://abovethelaw.com/2020/05/how-the-left-wing-media-botched-the-tara-reade-story/?rf=1

[Interlocutor is just not there yet]

I thought this story was dead. 100 pages in the middle of a pandemic wasn't enough discussion? Feels like this had 3 days of mainstream coverage, tops.

An well, I guess in a month we can look forward to the "'Tara Reade Rape Allegation Aftermath' Aftermath' Thread"

[new_patomic]

This story is still effectively over, so don't worry

But I couldn't help but be petty for a second over the absolute clownery Halper is now subjecting herself too

https://twitter.com/kthalps/status/1286685388409655298?s=20

"The accuser is well known in the DC social justice community. Unfortunately, this troubled individual has a long history of fabricating attacks against innocent people. A review of litigation she has filed in various jurisdictions would likely yield a revealing picture to an enterprising journalist. She has engaged in late night phone harassment campaigns, false allegations, and physical threats against numerous individuals over the years. She is NOT a credible witness against this promising progressive leader."

You don't say?

[GeneralMacArthur]

Oh yeah, this is the kind of hilarious Rose Twitter bulls--t that I don't ever talk about on Atlas.

This dude Shahid is a mega-HP who thinks he's gonna take down Pelosi.  In actuality, he's just telling lies about Pelosi to people on the internet so he can rake in that sweet "progressive" cash, and then he grifts it all for himself Joshua4Congress-style.  Naturally, he's a darling of the progressive online mediasphere.  When Bernie dropped out, the first thing the S4P subreddit did was endorse Shahid.

Now he's been accused of sexual harassment and generally creepy, pervy behavior.  And the exact same people who were relentlessly attacking Biden and demanding he drop out over Tara Reade, are now defending Shahid, using the same arguments they mocked and degraded Biden defenders for two months ago.  It's astonishing hypocrisy.  And of course Katie Halper, who led the attack on Biden, is leading the defense of Shahid.  Still waiting for Ryan Grim and Nathan Robinson to weigh in.

As if that weren't deliciously hypocritical enough, rewind a week and you have this kid David Silverstone, another progressive Twitter champion, who was Biden's reply-guy and spammed anti-Biden pro-Bernie memes all over Twitter at a furious pace for months.  I think he had like 80,000 tweets and bragged about spending all day making memes.  This guy was one of the biggest pushers of the Tara Reade story just through sheer volume of Tara Reade image macros, and was almost singlehandedly generating content for the PresidentialRaceMemes subreddit for weeks.  Turns out he was creeping in the DMs of any hot girl with a Rose next to her name, sending them pictures of his dick, including underage girls.  The exact same people who demanded Biden drop out over Reade built a wall around Silverstone and defended him, even though you had dozens of girls posting screenshots and videos of his creepy messages and dick pics.

Which progressive Twitter champion will turn out to be a pervy sex pest next week?  Which Tara Reade disciple will drop everything to defend him?  Be sure to tune in.

[Bidenworth2020]

While I am no fan of Shahid Buttar, calling this accusation credible is a dubious statement. The accuser apparently has a history of making up harrassment/assault claims.

[GeneralMacArthur]

While I am no fan of Shahid Buttar, calling this accusation credible is a dubious statement. The accuser apparently has a history of making up harrassment/assault claims.

You're right, edited.

[brucejoel99]

Yeah, GMA, this is a bit of a turn for you given how thoroughly you approached the Biden allegation. You're right to call out the hypocrisy of those people who posted about Tara Reade literally 20 times a day only to now say the same sh*t that they accused us Biden supporters of saying, but if you look into this for more than a second, it becomes very clear that this story - like the Tara Reade story - just isn't credible. Yes, Shahid Buttar is a grifter & he sucks because of that, but that being the case doesn't give any credibility to a frankly non-credible allegation.

EDIT: just saw your edit when posting my reply, thank you for acknowledging & correcting the error!

[GeneralMacArthur]

Yeah, GMA, this is a bit of a turn for you given how thoroughly you approached the Biden allegation. You're right to call out the hypocrisy of those people who posted about Tara Reade literally 20 times a day only to now say the same sh*t that they accused us Biden supporters of saying, but if you look into this for more than a second, it becomes very clear that this story - like the Tara Reade story - just isn't credible. Yes, Shahid Buttar is a grifter & he sucks because of that, but that being the case doesn't give any credibility to a frankly non-credible allegation.

EDIT: just saw your edit when posting my reply, thank you for acknowledging & correcting the error!

Yeah, I'm really only interested in the sheer hypocrisy and how obvious the morality gap is between the two sides.  I don't really care what happens to Shahid.

I haven't actually read the story beyond what's on my Twitter feed, which is mostly just reactions to the Halper letter.  If the allegation is unsubstantiated, or there's evidence that it's fabricated, I would want to see his name cleared, even though I think he's a loathsome grifter.

The Silverstone story, on the other hand, has dozens of girls posting pictures and videos as evidence, and I have no problem saying that I believe every word of it.

[sguberman]

Check out what Tara Reade is now doing.
https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/scott-whitlock/2020/08/12/newsbusters-exclusive-tara-reade-demands-press-ask-harris-about

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

UGH go away.