I believe Joe Biden

by | May 8, 2020 | Editor's Blog | 4 comments

Tara Reade’s allegations against Joe Biden could turn into the Hillary’s emails of the 2020 election. The press is following the evolving accusations closely and speculation is rampant on both left and right twitter that Biden will be removed from the ticket or should step down. Nobody is revisiting the numerous credible accusations against Donald Trump. 

I don’t believe Reade and I think the #BelieveWomen mantra is misguided. Women who make accusations should certainly be heard. Nobody should shame people who come forward and we need to create an atmosphere in this country where sexual harassment and abuse is utterly unacceptable. Abusers, not victims, should be the pariahs. But we also need to acknowledge that people, both men and women, lie about a lot of serious matters for a variety of murky reasons. We shouldn’t automatically believe women anymore than we should automatically dismiss allegations.

Back in the early 1990s, I spent a few years doing child neglect and abuse investigations. I saw both men and women lie on a regular basis, making accusations that could ruin lives and destroy families. Women accused husbands or boyfriends of sexual abuse, knowing the accusations were false. They accused neighbors of physical or sexual abuse in attempts to have children removed their homes. In one instance, a friend of mine lost custody of his very young children after his wife made allegations that he improperly touched his daughter in the shower. He never saw his children again. He’s dead now and that was 30 years ago. I’m certain the allegation was false.

I do not believe Reade for a few reasons. Her story and allegations have been changing and getting increasingly serious. Something probably happened that made her very uncomfortable and Joe Biden’s Senate staff may well have mishandled the situation, but the sexual assault charge does not seem credible. For twenty-seven years, she told a story of creepy behavior, not sexual assault.

She revisited the episode when the #MeToo movement was taking off. Last April, Reade said Biden touched her inappropriately and made a very detailed description of his behavior. “He used to put his hand on my shoulder and run his finger up my neck. I would just kind of freeze and wait for him to stop doing that.” Not until last month did she allege sexual assault. That’s a wide gap that appeared over the course of the year. In my experience, evolving stories have problems. 

Reade’s most recent version describes behavior that reflects an attitude and personality type. Sexual assaults like the one she described are not often one-off incidents. They are part of a pattern of abuse. Nobody else has ever accused Biden of any such behavior. Other allegations of inappropriate behavior stem from Biden being too familiar and affectionate, not engaging in entitled sexual assault. 

If Biden had a pattern of sexual abuse, his behavior would have come out by now. He was vetted for the vice presidency and he was a central figure on Capitol Hill for four decades. Even when society looked the other way and downplayed sexual harassment and abuse by powerful men, female staffers, lobbyists and others knew which Senators and Members of Congress to avoid. Joe Biden was not one of them. 

While I do not find Reade’s accusations credible, I do see a pattern in the press of chasing down murky accusations about a Democratic nominee while downplaying or ignoring accusations against Donald Trump. In 2016, the press obsessed over Hillary Clinton’s emails and today nobody even remembers why. At the same time, numerous women made very credible accusations against Trump, but they never got the multiple news cycle coverage of either the Clinton emails or the Reade allegations. 

I suspect the press is overcompensating to counter accusations that Trump is treated unfairly. Republicans have been whining for decades that the press is biased against them. To be fair, most reporters do not believe that denying gay people the same rights as straight people is religious freedom. Most do not believe that cutting taxes for the wealthy and services to poor people is better for society as a whole. They do not believe that we are a color blind society. They do not believe that massive wealth and income inequality are inevitable in a free society. They do believe in a strong social safety net, especially as their industry collapses and many of their colleagues find themselves dependent on one. It’s difficult to be an educated American dependent on wages and still buy into the conservative dogma of free market ideologues and evangelical Christians like Franklin Graham and Jerry Falwell, Jr. 

Still, those reporters  and their news organizations should spend as much time investigating Donald Trump and the allegations against him as they do the ones against his Democratic opponents. Trump is a master of creating chaos, making crazy statements and then having surrogates question the motives of reporters. Those tactics should not keep reporters from holding Trump to the same standard they are holding Biden. Like Tara Reade’s allegations, the ones against Trump are still out there and still unresolved. Unlike Reade’s allegations, they haven’t gotten weeks of steady coverage. 

4 Comments

  1. morris

    I believe Joe Biden when he says he doesn’t remember Tara Reade. Problem is I doubt he remembers what he had for breakfast.
    I’m afraid propping up Joe Biden is a strategic error. In fact it could be a gift for Trump. Biden can’t string two sentences together these days. He clearly has lost his game. I cringe every time he makes a live statement or gives one of his infrequent interviews. In a debate Trump will slice and dice him. Biden getting taken out early by this while there is still time to get a replacement might be the best thing.
    The virus might help Biden but not like many think. The way it might help is keeping him off the stage with Trump. I truly do not believe Trump is losing support and certainly not his base due to the virus. This week’s special election landslides for the Republicans may be a “canary in the coal mine” sign. As “red” states open and “blue” states stay closed, the people in the blue states are going to become increasingly frustrated and financially damaged compared to their red state brethren.

  2. Rick Gunter

    Mr. Mills,
    This is one of your best columns. Thank you.

    It also angers me that the press, of which I have been a member for 50 years, seems to overlook Trump’s accusers and going after a “fresh story” in Biden’s accuser. But I would hasten to add that Trump’s accusers received a lot of attention in 2016, especially in wake of the Access Hollywood episode. Trump’s supporter and what once was a major political party now reduced to ruins still nominated and helped elected him. He got away with it again.
    In wake of that, there is hardly anything Joe Biden could do to merit censure from me. I hate to write that, but I feel that way after nearly four years of moral depravity by Donald J. Trump. And if Biden or Donald Duck gets in the White House, the standard of conduct of the new president has been dumbed down. I dare Fox News and their low-information watchers to say a word in criticism of the Democratic president. Not one word. They lost all moral standing with this aging Tar Heel years ago. I hope i live long enough to censure the wrath headed the way of the next Democratic president. Short of absolute treason, they should have a very low bar of conduct.
    The truth ultimately will emerge about Mr. Trump. I would bet every dime I have that the total story will be even more devastating than anything we know.
    I have written in my Virginia weekly since 2015 that Mr. Trump is nothing less than a national emergency. At this very moment, the real virus impacting and destroying American lives is Donald Trump. He never should have been elected. He should have been removed by the Senate. Now, it is up to the voters to do their job and throw this bum from office.

  3. Wray Coble

    Amen!!!

    • Jeffryn Stephens

      Thank you Thomas Mills, Rick Gunter and Wray Coble. As a woman I believe we have reached the point that when we feel uncomfortable with someone’s attentions we can tell them so — strongly. I also believe Joe Biden is a conscientious man, with a loving family, who reaches out to people in kindness. I have seen no evidence of anything else.
      Jeffryn Stephens

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