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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNew Reporting Increases Doubts on Tara Reade's Allegation Against Joe Biden
When Tara Reade first made her assault allegation against Joe Biden, I thought the charge was more likely to be true than false. To be clear, I had no intention of changing my vote. The allegation came too late to reopen the nominating process without doing violence to the expressed will of the electorate. And Ive always believed the primary criteria for voting on a candidate is their policy impact (which is why I wrote a column in 2018 defending Republicans who still supported Roy Moore over Doug Jones). But I did feel bad about voting for a candidate I suspected had done something terrible.
Since then, however, three detailed reports by Voxs Laura McGann, PBS NewsHour, and Politicos Natasha Korecki have delved into Reades allegations. Neither reaches a definitive conclusion. But both of them on balance add a lot of grounds for skepticism. At this point, Reades allegation seems to me to be more likely to be false than true.
McGanns story recounts her yearlong effort to report on and corroborate Reades claims. The main problem she describes is that Reade dramatically changed her allegation. Reporters knew that Reade had previously described a culture of harassment without sexual assault, and then, in March, suddenly added a specific account of sexual assault. This didnt prove her account was false: Sometimes survivors of sexual assault unroll elements of the offense over time. But McGann, by revisiting the two accounts and trying to understand the reason Reade changed them, zeroes in on two specific problems.
1. Reades account of why she changed her story seems not to be true. McGann describes her lengthy, and sympathetic, efforts to prove out Reades charge of sexual harassment. She was surprised when Reade claimed she had decided not to share the full story because reporters were shutting her down:
In a recent conversation, I asked Reade why she would say the media was shutting her down when she was initially so adamant with me (and other outlets) that this wasnt a misconduct story. The only answer she gave was that she was speaking about the response to her claims collectively. And in her opinion, the added details still fit her construct that this is not a story about sexual misconduct, because, she told me, sexual assault itself is about power.
Read more: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/05/tara-reade-joe-biden-allegation-reporting-vox-pbs-doubts.html
Lunabell
(6,087 posts)N/T
LakeArenal
(28,820 posts)It was wacky from the start.
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)I wonder what kind of journalistic firepower is being brought to bear on the allegations of the two dozen or so women who have made far more consistent claims against Donald J. Trump? I mean, I'm glad that Reade's story is getting some scrutiny and that it's coming up quite short of any credibility, but there are far more credible claims floating around out there about Trump, and nobody seems all that interested in telling those women's stories.
LizBeth
(9,952 posts)waste my time educating myself to address as we get closer to the election, I will have the information handy.
Me.
(35,454 posts)Good Grief
Kingofalldems
(38,458 posts)Too bad for them.
Takket
(21,576 posts)to my knowledge, Reade has not asked the Senate herself to release the "complaint" she supposedly filed on Biden. Yet her lawyer is still asking for the "U of delaware papers" to be released despite everyone knowing that complaints are not filed with speech/position paper records.
Biden asked the Senate complaint to be released, knowing it doesn't exist, and the Senate said no because of "privacy concerns". the concerns are meant to protect the accuser so if that is Reade, why isn't Reade putting her blessing on their release? BECAUSE IT DOESN'T EXIST and that is the end of her story.
The question is, what actually IS in the delaware papers that the GOP wants? they are probably hoping there is something "controversial" they can feed to the russian troll network to "blow up" on social media. i have no doubt that is why they keep hammering Biden on the Delaware papers when the Senate records are where any supposed complaint would be.
Response to Galraedia (Original post)
panader0 This message was self-deleted by its author.
nsd
(2,406 posts)The OP is not expressing their own opinion.
panader0
(25,816 posts)Crunchy Frog
(26,587 posts)Was all the evidence I needed to dismiss it out of hand.