How Joe Biden can turn his biggest crisis into an opportunity - Karen Tumulty

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Though it is doubtful there is anything he could say that would make the accusations disappear in this white-hot political season, the way he handles this will be a test of whether he is up to dealing with all the other things that will be thrown at him between now and November. This is also an important opportunity for Biden to cut a path for others to follow in the #MeToo era. The former vice president has a chance to offer a model of how someone who is accused can responsibly defend himself against what he insists are false accusations while still honoring the principle that women who speak up should be treated with fairness and respect.

This is a conundrum that has always existed in cases of sexual abuse and harassment, where there are rarely eyewitnesses or airtight documentation. In Biden’s case, there is also a unique opportunity to demonstrate good faith. He should open up the records of his 36-year Senate career that he donated to the University of Delaware in 2012 and that are under seal until two years after he leaves public life.

What might be in there? No one really knows until they look. The Senate does not operate under any equivalent of the 1978 Presidential Records Act, under which presidents and vice presidents are required to manage and preserve their records carefully. Then an archivist judges which should be made available to the public, which have information too sensitive to be disclosed and which are purely private.

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Biden’s might or might not include memos or other documents discussing Reade’s stint in his office as a staff assistant in 1993. The records might also show whether she ever lodged a complaint about his behavior — she says she did; Biden’s campaign says she didn’t — either to her superiors on the senator’s staff, or under procedures then available to take her grievances outside the office.

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What Biden should do is name a small group of well-respected, impartial researchers — historians, academics, archivists. Then, he should ask the University of Delaware to give them access to his papers as soon as the precautions put in place as a result of the novel coronavirus are loosened. My own experience with the solitary endeavor of digging through boxes of documents suggests it would not be all that hard to practice rudimentary social distancing.

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If Biden were to do something like this, it would be an extraordinary gesture of faith in his own innocence and the starkest contrast imaginable with how President Trump has handled the allegations of more than a dozen women who have accused him of sexual assault. Just as important, it would provide a badly needed example for others who find themselves in a situation like the one he is in.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-joe-biden-handles-the-tara-reade-allegations-is-a-crucial-test/2020/04/30/b1a37ffc-8afd-11ea-ac8a-fe9b8088e101_story.html?