After Latest Tara Reade Twist, Biden Faces Swelling Criticism from the Left
The establishment media and pundits on the left have tried to shield presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden from the impact of a sexual assault allegation by a former Senate aide, but cracks are developing in the wall of support surrounding former vice president.
Make no mistake: The left has generally ignored or dismissed Tara Reade’s allegation that Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993 when he was in the Senate.
But after a clip of Reade’s mother phoning Larry King on CNN resurfaced last week, some are breaking their silence on the allegation — including CNN itself.
#BREAKING: HERE is the video from August 11,1993’s ‘Larry King Live’ described by @TheIntercept (and Tara Reade) as allegedly featuring her mother calling in and alluding to Reade’s sexual assault claims against @JoeBiden (blog here by @ScottJW) https://t.co/fCgEqBnX7n pic.twitter.com/V5FGHskv56
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 24, 2020
“Newly surfaced video from 1993 appears to feature the mother of Tara Reade, a woman who accused presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden of sexual assault, calling into a cable TV show to seek advice around the time of the alleged assault,” CNN reported Saturday.
The network published the report after The Intercept did its job for it and found a quarter-century-old clip that gives further credence to Reade’s claims.
Until April 17, the far-left network had seemingly banned any mention of the sexual assault allegation from its website.
But the 1993 Larry King video is now out there, and it shows a woman asking for advice on how her daughter, a staffer for a “prominent senator,” should navigate an issue with her boss without going to the media.
Reade posted on Twitter that the caller was her mother.
This is my mom. I miss her so much and her brave support of me. https://t.co/okU80kqWAI
— taratweets ( Alexandra Tara Reade) (@ReadeAlexandra) April 24, 2020
Reade’s ever-growing presence in the 2020 primary is inconvenient for Democrats and the establishment media, as a notion that all women who accuse powerful men of sexual assault and misconduct must be believed was rampant after then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was tried in the media in 2018 over a decades-old accusation that he groped a high school classmate.
That accusation was never verified, and it was never proven Kavanaugh had even met his accuser.
But Reade is a former staffer with a verified history of coming into contact with Biden, and now we have an old clip that purports to show her mother asking for help on national TV.
Unlike Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Kavanaugh of inappropriately touching her when the two were in high school, we know Biden and Reade knew one another.
The Reade problem is a growing one for Democrats, as supporters of former presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont are crying foul over the double standard applied to Biden, who is presumed innocent by the establishment media and prominent #MeToo activists, due to his party affiliation.
Briahna Joy Gray, the now-former national press secretary for Sanders’ presidential campaign, has suggested that Biden might be replaced with another candidate at this summer’s convention.
“Either Dem leadership cares more abt maintaining a corporate status quo than getting rid of Trump, or they’re planning to replace Joe – adopting a pretty fast and loose relationship w/ representative Democracy,” Gray wrote on Twitter earlier this month in response to questions from Fox News host Tucker Carlson about whether Biden has the mental competency to be president.
Bernie was too kind to go after Biden, but it’s coming.
Either Dem leadership cares more abt maintaining a corporate status quo than getting rid of Trump, or they’re planning to replace Joe – adopting a pretty fast and loose relationship w/ representative Democracy.
Lose lose. https://t.co/mzQYMjM2Nc
— Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) April 9, 2020
Gray framed the Democrats’ position as “Lose lose.”
During an interview with The Atlantic this past week, Gray expounded on that statement, and made it clear, “Biden is only the presumptive nominee.”
When questioned about her hesitancy to endorse Biden, which her former boss has done, Gray was asked if Reade’s allegation is playing a role in a desire by far-left Democrats and some Sanders supporters to see Biden replaced.
“There’s a lot of reasons why Democrats might want to substitute a different person for Joe Biden as the nominee. The Tara Reade allegation has been handled abysmally by the press. If anyone looks at this closely, then they will see reason for concern,” she said.
Gray is not the only person on the left calling out the Democrats’ double standard with regard to sexual assault accusations.
Many prominent leftists, including Intercept co-founding editor Glen Greenwald, have attacked the party online for its silence on the allegation against Biden, saying it damages the credibility of the #MeToo movement.
Democratic men feel totally comfortable to publicly smear Tara Reade as an unstable disinformation agent of the Kremlin – in order words, flagrantly lying about her claims of sexual assault – because the accused is a Democratic Party politician.
They are the lowest of the low: https://t.co/6bSJ1AgqbX
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 26, 2020
Think about it: if someone advocates 2 radically different standards for judging sexual assault allegations — determined exclusively by the partisan identity of the accused — what is more morally grotesque than that? Just trifling with people’s lives for Party.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 26, 2020
This much is clear.
In 1993 the mother of Tara Reade was so disturbed by what her daughter told her @JoeBiden did to her, & the lack of help she said she got from his staff, that she called Larry King to talk about it the week Tara stopped working for himpic.twitter.com/WOlPdjLNyP
— Shaun King (@shaunking) April 25, 2020
Have had a lot of prominent Democrats write me, many in the past few minutes, say they think this Larry King video is damaging for Joe Biden, and bolsters Tara Reade’s credibility.
But that they think speaking about it will help Trump so they won’t say anything. https://t.co/JmID1iW8NB
— Shaun King (@shaunking) April 25, 2020
Biden has single handedly destroyed the #metoo movement. pic.twitter.com/eLhgDUIPPQ
— Matty ? they/them (@matt_on_the_net) April 26, 2020
Reade, who worked for Biden from 1992 to 1993, said during a recent podcast that Biden had kissed, groped and digitally penetrated her during an unwanted sexual advance more than 25 years ago.
“We were alone and it was the strangest thing,” Reade told liberal podcaster Katie Halperin. “There was no, like, exchange really. He just had me up against the wall.”
“He went down my skirt but then up inside it and he penetrated me with his fingers,” she said on the podcast.
Reade filed a criminal complaint with the Washington Metropolitan Police Department earlier this month.
With even far-left CNN now finally covering the story, Democrats are in a position where they might have to reconsider Biden’s viability in the November election.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
