The two top newspapers in the country have finally gotten around to the sex-assault allegation against presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden.
The Washington Post and New York Times published stories about former Biden staffer Tara Reade’s allegations today and yesterday after three weeks of silence. Both newspapers attempted to cast doubt on Reade’s accusation that Biden assaulted her when she worked for him in the U.S. Senate.
Whatever happens, Biden now knows how U.S. Supreme Court Clarence Thomas felt when a former woman employee hit him with 11th-hour sex-harassment claims, all unsubstantiated, as his confirmation approached.
The Post
Biden’s troubles began three weeks ago when left-wing podcaster Katie Halper posted Reade’s allegations to SoundCloud.
Reade, who filed a police complaint on Thursday, said a superior in Biden’s office ordered her to deliver a gym bag to the senator. When she handed it to Biden, who is well known for unwanted huggin’, sniffin’, and Eskimo kissin’, he made his move:
He just had me up against the wall….
I handed it to him, it was gone, and then his hands were on me and underneath my clothes…. He went down my skirt but then up inside it, and he penetrated me with his fingers…. He was kissing me at the same time….
When I pulled away, he got finished doing what he was doing, and I … pulled back, and he said, “come on, man, I heard you liked me.”
The Post published its piece after “examining Tara Reade’s allegation over the past three weeks,” and to its credit, found a friend whom Reade told about the assault.
But the pro-Biden newspaper used most of the story to debunk Reade’s claim and included a 93-word rebuttal from a former staffer who refused to speak to the newspaper directly.
Former Biden employees, the Post reported, “were hesitant to cast doubt on an individual woman’s account but said Reade’s story did not match their experience in a tightknit office with high-ranking female staffers”:
None of those reached by The Post recalled witnessing Biden putting his hands on Reade or the request that she serve drinks.
“There was never anything like that that was ever a part of the culture of working on the Hill at that time for Biden,” said Melissa Lefko, who worked as a staff assistant in 1993. “There were plenty of other senators I could point in your direction as known for their sexual predatory behavior of female staffers. Biden was never, ever one of those senators. Never. Never.”
And while Reade supported the Obama-Biden ticket twice, the Post reported, she supported socialist Bernie Sanders this time around, which suggests she might have lodged the allegation to improve the old Castroite’s chances of prevailing in the primaries.
The Times
The Times also spent the last three weeks on the story, and like the Post, reported that Reade couldn’t remember the “exact time, date, or location of the assault.”
As well, as with the Post, the newspaper devoted much time to interviewing anyone who would dispute her story:
The Times has also interviewed lawyers who spoke to Ms. Reade about her allegation; nearly two dozen people who worked with Mr. Biden during the early 1990s, including many who worked with Ms. Reade; and the other seven women who criticized Mr. Biden last year, to discuss their experiences with him.
No other allegation about sexual assault surfaced in the course of reporting, nor did any former Biden staff members corroborate any details of Ms. Reade’s allegation. The Times found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Biden.
The Times found friends who said Reade told them of the assault at the time or afterward, but the newspaper quoted only denials at length.
To its credit, the Times let a woman who received one of Biden’s Big Juicies have the last word.
“Biden is not just a hugger,” Lucy Flores told the Times. “Does he potentially have the capacity to go beyond that? That’s the answer everyone is trying to get at.”
Remember Thomas
Biden will not, it appears, suffer the same high-tech lynching to which he subjected Thomas nearly 30 years ago.
As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Biden presided over hearings at which Anita Hill, a former Thomas aide, accused the high-court nominee of sexual harassment.
Those who knew Thomas said they weren’t true, and Hill never proved her claim.
Though Biden later admitted he didn’t believe her, he orchestrated hearings that permanently damaged the justice’s reputation.
Photo: AP Images
R. Cort Kirkwood is a long-time contributor to The New American and a former newspaper editor.
