The Washington Post is facing intense criticism over a headline on the sexual assault allegation against former Vice President Joe Biden by former Senate aide Tara Reade. Various witnesses have come forward to support Reade by saying that she told them of the assault in the 1990s and a new clip has emerged on CNN of Reade’s mother raising the controversy on Larry King Live in 1993. The Washington Post, which had exhaustive and hard-hitting coverage of the allegations against Justice Brett Kavanaugh, crafted one of the most convoluted headlines humanly possible: “Developments in allegations against Biden amplify efforts to question his behavior.” Unlike the Kavanaugh stories, the headline focused the story on efforts to discredit Biden as opposed to the assault allegation by Reade.
The headline was seen by critics of the double standard being applied to the Biden allegation. It raises similar objections to how Democratic leaders and commentators spent years protecting Bill Clinton from an array women alleging everything from sexual harassment to rape. A more obvious headline would be “Two Additional Witnesses Come Forward To Support Biden Accuser.”
Post Politics
✔@postpolitics
Developments in allegations against Biden amplify efforts to question his behavior https://wapo.st/2yLiK1k
Developments in allegations against Biden amplify efforts to question his behavior
A former neighbor and a former work colleague are reported to have corroborated claims of harassment and assault by a former Biden Senate aide.
washingtonpost.com
It is important to note that columnists and reporters like Washington Post reporter Matt Viser do not write headlines or approve them.
There has been an almost universal spin in the media to portray the Biden allegation as a political story of how Republicans are seeking to use the story against him. There is a true element to that story. However, the disconnect with the Kavanaugh coverage is quite extraordinary. There was little equivocation in either the headlines or the stories.
The disconnect is even more striking among Democratic leaders. I previously wrote on the position of Democratic senators, before Christine Blasey Ford even testified, that they believed her and opposed Kavanaugh. That was an allegation from high school that had not been previously voiced in public. Yet, Democratic senator denounced anyone who did not believe Ford based solely on her account. Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, declared that all men need to “shut up”:
“Not only do women like Dr. Ford, who bravely come forward, need to be heard, but they need to be believed. Guess who’s perpetuating all of these kinds of actions? It’s the men in this country, and I just want to say to the men of this country to shut up and step up. Do the right thing for a change.”
Other Democratic senators could not go public any faster with immediate support for Ford as a clear victim. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn). stated “Let me just say right at the outset: I believe, Dr. Ford. I believe the survivor here.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., NY) declared “I believe her. Many, many, many Americans believe her. Many, many women in America who have been taken advantage of certainly believe her.” Sen. Kirsten GIllibrand (D., NY) said “I believe her because she’s telling the truth.”
A wide array of members demanded that the Congress must believe women who raise such allegations or they are abusing these victims. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who just endorsed Biden yesterday, attacked those who did not simply accept the word of Ford: “Senate Republicans chose to send a clear message to all women: do not speak out, and if you do – do not expect to be heard, believed or respected.”
Reade specifically struck out at Sen. Kamala Harris (D., Cal.), who was one of the most vocal politicians demanding that Ford’s allegations be accepted and Kavanaugh rejected. Reade stated “Kamala Harris is my representative and I reached out to her for help. No response.” She also blasted Hillary Clinton, who Reade says she supported in past elections, for endorsing Biden. In an apparent reference to Bill Clinton Reade added “Hillary Clinton has a history of enabling powerful men to cover up their sexual predatory behaviors and their inappropriate sexual misconduct.”
At the time (and today with regard to the Biden accusations) I was concerned about the lack of a presumption of innocence before any testimony had even occurred. After telling all men everywhere to “shut up” and just stand with Ford, Hirano was pressed on whether Kavanaugh has “the same presumption of innocence as anyone else in America?” For most people, the question would be an easy one to answer in the affirmative, Hirono demurred and declined to say that she would afford Kavanaugh this core presumption of the rule of law. She said that she would “put his denial in the context of everything that I know about him in terms of how he approaches his cases.” She said that she would consider his “ideological agenda” and her view that “he very much is against women’s reproductive choice.”
Once again, I have always maintained that women need to be heard and taken seriously in raising these allegations. I have also objected to those who would toss aside due process and simply accept accusations without investigation. Notably, while most are remaining silent and refusing to respond to media inquiries, some Democrats are now adopting that approach for Biden and, rather than saying that Reade must be believed, they are now saying that she must be heard. Biden supporter Alyssa Milano tweeted out “I hear and see you, Tara.” She notably did not say “I believe you,” in sharp contrast with the Ford allegation. During the Kavanaugh hearing, some of us were slammed for not treating the Ford allegations as per se dispositive.
However, there is no denying the fact that the many in media and the Democratic leadership have, again, adopted a sharply different approach to a story where a leading Democrat is accused of sexual assault. There was no equivocation and circumspection during the Kavanaugh controversy. The spin is staggering and the silence is deafening.
Calm, apathetic and coherent American men rationally repealed the 18th and replaced it with the 21st.
Calm, apathetic and coherent American men must rationally repeal the 19th and replace it with the 28th.
“All women need to be heard.”
Wrong.
All American women need to have babies. Lots of babies. The American fertility rate is in a “death spiral.” More Americans die than are born. American women have failed in their duty to America. American women stopped making Americans. America and Americans are vanishing. The population in America is being imported of foreign invader hyphenates. In 100 years, there won’t be an American left in America.
“All women need to be heard”. Where can I go to hear her? CNN, MSNBC, NBC, PBS, ABC, CBS? Not yet really….You need to be Horton to hear anything about Tara Reade on those networks.
DemocracyNow!:
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/3/31/tara_reade_joe_biden_sexual_assault
Turley deflecting on Trump who cheated on wife #1 with #2 who got pregnant while he was still married to #1. Cheated on #2 with #3 and cheated on #3 with a porn star, and enjoys the full support of the party of “Family Values” and conservative evangelicals. But sure, let’s talk about Biden.
Fact: the article is about Biden allegedly assaulting a senate aide “grabbing her by the you know what”
You lose, loser. This is communist vs. communist. The Me Too Gals (radical extremist wackjobs) have promoted the “Truth Commission” which has now ensnared Joke Bedone. The joke’s on you, Joe. The joke’s over. Dementia, Sexual Abuse and Cover-up. It don’t get no betta than this!
Why do I have the impression that Joke Biden is on the verge of pulling out?
It’s “Hillary II, I’m Wiff Her, The Sequel.”
Believe women? No, believe only liberal women.
Another reason not to take leftist women (i.e. feminist women, but I am being redundant) seriously. Feminists never criticized those great protectors of women such as Teddy Kennedy or Bill Clinton either. And they refuse to criticize how Islam treats women. What phony hypocrites!
Let’s be honest. Feminists could care less what Ted Kennedy, Bill Clinton or Joe Biden may have done (or not). Feminists support their policies and that is enough. If Kavanaugh had been a leftist, the same would have applied. I understand why but dislike the posturing. And they refuse to criticize Islam out of a desire to be politically correct and signal their moral superiority. Your average SJW, upper middle class, morally superior leftist woman (or man) wouldn’t last a week in a traditional Islamic society. And Muslims don’t care if you call them a bad name.
antonio
WOMEN ACCUSING TRUMP
#5) Miss Teen USA Contestants (1997)
The allegation: Five women who competed in the 1997 Miss Teen USA claimed Trump, who owned the pageant, walked in on them while they were changing.
“It was certainly the most inappropriate time to meet us all for the first time,” said Victoria Hughes, the former Miss New Mexico Teen USA. “The youngest girl was 15, and I was the eldest at 19.”
On The Howard Stern Show, Trump admitted to “inspecting” the contestants backstage. It wasn’t clear if he was referring to the Miss USA pageant, or the contest for teens.
“You know, I’m inspecting because I want to make sure that everything is good,” he said. “You know, the dresses. ‘Is everyone okay?’ You know, they’re standing there with no clothes. ‘Is everybody okay?’ And you see these incredible-looking women, and so, I sort of get away with things like that.”
Since then: In October 2017 Candace Smith, a former Miss Ohio USA, said Trump was in the dressing room when she competed in the 2003 Miss USA Pageant (not the teen pageant).
Edited From: “What Happened To The 20 Women Who Accused Trump Of Sexual Misconduct”
New York Magazine, 2/26/20
Change the subject. It’s the only defense you have.
Promise Everything. Deliver Nothing. Blame Someone Else. Trump 2020
Deflection….Do you have any thoughts of the Tara Reade incident or Christine Blasey Ford story? Or do you just want to pull others into the story and not address anything in Mr. Turley’s article? Very telling…
WOMEN ACCUSING TRUMP
# 4) Lisa Boyne (mid-1990s)
The allegation: Lisa Boyne said a mutual friend invited her to dinner with Trump in the mid-1990s. She claims she was picked up in Trump’s limousine, and during the ride he made disparaging comments about women he’d slept with or wanted to sleep with. Boyne said that during the dinner, several models were called over and instructed to walk over the table to Trump.
“As the women walked across the table, Donald Trump would look up under their skirt and comment on whether they had underwear or didn’t have underwear and what the view looked like,” Boyne said.
“It was the most offensive scene I’ve ever been a part of,” Boyne added. She said she claimed she wasn’t feeling well and left the restaurant.
Since then: In December 2017, Boyne joined a press conference with several other Trump accusers via speakerphone. “This isn’t how we should teach our boys to talk … It’s horrendous,” Boyne said, referring to the Access Hollywood tape. “[We should] demand that Donald Trump step down like Al Franken. Because what he’s acknowledged, what he’s made appropriate culturally is a thousand times worse than anything Al Franken has done.”
Edited From: “What Happened To The 20 Women Who Accused Trump Of Sexual Misconduct”
New York Magazine, 2/26/19
I understand. Paint Chips liked the payments to women so they would accuse Trump even though they had no case or evidence and some were proven liars. Paint Chips feels that since some women lied for money, fame, politics etc. that excuses Biden from fi….ing a woman. Suddenly the Biden camp believes women lie.
I don’t know if Biden is guilty of anything but suddenly one doesn’t even investigate evidence of abuse towards women if the male is an important Democratic polician. Yes that is Paint Chips. Willing to kill the old, the young and now willing to abuse women to promote his agenda. I’m not sure if he is the one that said all Republicans should die from Covid. Paint Chips is the picture of a ‘revolutionary’ pin head that is willing to see anyone in his way die while he hides in his mother’s basement.
Diaper Man your comment has no connection to any reality.
“Diaper Man ”
Why stoop to Allan’s level. He’s a jerk.
Because Peter knows nothing else: Batsh!t crazy trolls are like that
Said like just another ‘batsh!t crazy troll’ who is doing JT proud.
Keep on keepin’ it classy Anon @ 4:56.
Anonymous the Stupid, I will add a bit of information for you in an attempt to educate the uneducable. If you want more let me know just like you did this time.
—
Robert Gates Makes a Damning Case Against Joe Biden as Commander-in-Chief
Before anyone considers electing Biden to the presidency on grounds of the Delaware Democrat’s purported moderation, the electorate should examine all the reasons why the former defense secretary says Biden has “been wrong on nearly every foreign policy and national security issue for the past four decades.”
Joseph DugganApril 1, 2020
Robert Gates is the epitome of a moderate political thinker, public servant, and lifelong specialist in international security. After a lengthy career appointment as an analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency, he served as deputy director of the CIA under President Ronald Reagan, deputy national security adviser and, later, director of the CIA under President George H.W. Bush. Gates served for two years as President George W. Bush’s secretary of defense and two-and-a-half more years in the same office under President Barack Obama.
Here is a man with no appetite for bombast. Here is a judicious national security establishment figure firmly aligned with the Bushes, Jim Baker, and Brent Scowcroft. Here is someone who is hard to imagine wearing a MAGA hat but is surely a patriot committed, in his own manner, to American greatness.
Gates is a Republican and is certainly no liberal, but his reputation for moderation, pragmatism, and managerial talent was such that Barack Obama wanted to retain him for a long stint as secretary of defense. It wasn’t the easiest of tenures, but for two and a half years, Gates worked diligently and as smoothly as he could with President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and the rest of the Obama-Biden national security team.
It is therefore a matter of grave alarm—at least a DEFCON 2 and possibly DEFCON 1, the ultimate state of alert—when Gates, that most centered of centrists, asserts that Biden has “been wrong on nearly every foreign policy and national security issue for the past four decades.”
The entire syllabus of Biden’s foreign policy and national security errors is a target-rich environment for the many American Greatness writers with expertise on particular issues. Anyone who makes the case for Biden’s election to the presidency should be made to defend the extremism and demonstrated failure of Biden’s national security record.
Let’s consider Biden’s fatal flaw when it comes to defending the United States, our allies, and friends, against ballistic missiles.
During the Reagan and first Bush administrations, a signature issue for the ambitious senator from Delaware was ballistic missile defense. Biden mocked Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, insisting that a program for research and development of effective defenses against ICBMs was a dangerous delusion.
Following the lead of his mentor, the late Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Biden said that the research and development of missile defenses was a waste of money because it was a foregone conclusion that effective defenses would be impossible.
With less than acute logic, Biden also said that R&D for missile defense was “destabilizing.” Why? Well, Biden said, because the program moved in the direction of undoing the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, the cornerstone of the Strangelovian “mutual assured destruction” doctrine that encouraged the ever-growing lethality of offensive nuclear weapons on both the Soviet and American sides.
Think about that for a moment. If R&D for missile defense really had been as useless as an alchemist’s labors at turning base metals into gold, why should that have changed the strategic offensive balance between America and the Soviets?
Consider, too: Soviet diplomatic pronouncements and propaganda agitated vehemently against American R&D for missile defense. If the Soviets really had believed that Reagan was wasting American defense dollars in pursuit of a delusion, why didn’t they encourage Reagan to keep doing it? Why did they denounce the program so stridently?
Biden, who has never been regarded as much of a thinker, somehow missed that point.
When Reagan pursued the R&D anyway and the honest scientific community came around more and more to recognize the feasibility of effective ballistic missile defense, Biden and Kennedy remained steadfast in their deep denial.
As a senator, Biden slowed the development and deployment of ballistic missile defenses. Americans, our allies, and our friends should never forget that Biden struggled mightily to prevent them from having the defenses they now enjoy.
Today, the United States has a robust ballistic missile defense program that keeps getting stronger and more capable.
Israel is famous for its effective missile defenses. After first gaining missile defense systems from the United States, Israel’s own homegrown missile defense technology is so substantial that it has become a product for export.
Saudi Arabia has destroyed numerous incoming ballistic missiles over the past several years, including missiles targeted at Riyadh only last week. Without the U.S.-made Patriot missile defense systems that Biden fought to prevent, Saudi Arabia would have sustained crippling damage and casualties from Iranian missiles launched by Tehran’s clients in Yemen.
Countries circling the globe now have ballistic missile defenses because of Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative.
All of the NATO countries are in Reagan’s debt for the anti-missile shield that now protects them.
Japan, Korea, Kuwait, and Bahrain are among the nations with U.S. Patriot defenses.
The United Arab Emirates has the most advanced missile defense assets in the Gulf region. It was the first country outside the United States to deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery.
It pleases Biden’s campaign and the Big Media to describe Biden as some sort of moderate as he prepares to face President Trump in the November election. But the reality is that Biden is on the far-left on all issues, only a tiny bit less extreme in substance and style than Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and “the squad.”
When it comes to missile defense, in fact, there is no meaningful difference between Biden and Sanders.
An authentic moderate is hard to find. Robert Gates comes as close as anyone to meeting the definition.
Before anyone considers electing Biden to the presidency on grounds of the Delaware Democrat’s purported moderation, voters should examine all the reasons why Gates says Biden has “been wrong on nearly every foreign policy and national security issue for the past four decades.”
Keep on keepin’ it classy, Allan. Keep on doin’ JT proud, as you insult others.
Paint Chips, I know you like to agree with yourself under another name but it only makes you look more foolish. Everything I said is true.
payments to women so they would accuse Trump.
some were proven liars.
Suddenly the Biden camp believes women lie.
Yes that is Paint Chips. Willing to kill the old, the young and now willing to abuse women to promote his agenda. I’m not sure if he is the one that said all Republicans should die from Covid. Paint Chips is the picture of a ‘revolutionary’ pin head that is willing to see anyone in his way die while he hides in his mother’s basement.
Said like just another ‘batsh!t crazy troll’ who is doing JT proud.
Keep on keepin’ it classy, Allan.
WOMEN ACCUSING TRUMP
# 3) Jill Harth (1993)
The allegation: Harth claimed that Trump made repeated unwanted sexual advances as she and her romantic partner at the time, George Houraney, pursued a business relationship with the mogul in the early 1990s. She said that on January 24, 1993, at Mar-a-Lago, Trump offered her a tour of the estate, then pulled her into his daughter Ivanka’s empty bedroom.
“He pushed me up against the wall, and had his hands all over me and tried to get up my dress again,” Harth said, “and I had to physically say: ‘What are you doing? Stop it.’ It was a shocking thing to have him do this because he knew I was with George, he knew they were in the next room. And how could he be doing this when I’m there for business?”
In 1997 Harth and Houraney sued Trump for breach of contract, and she filed a separate sexual-harassment suit, accusing him of “attempted rape.” They reached a confidential settlement in the contract suit, and as part of the agreement Harth withdrew her suit.
Edited From: “What Happened To The 20 Women Who Accused Trump Of Sexual Misconduct”
New York Magazine, 2/26/19
WOMEN ACCUSING TRUMP
# 2) Kristin Anderson (early 1990s)
The allegation: Anderson claimed that while she was out at a New York club with friends in the early 1990s, someone slid his hand under her miniskirt and touched her vagina through her underwear. She turned around a recognized him as Donald Trump.
“It wasn’t a sexual come-on. I don’t know why he did it. It was like just to prove that he could do it and nothing would happen,” Anderson said. “There was zero conversation. We didn’t even really look at each other. It was very random, very nonchalant on his part.”
Since then: Anderson is mentioned in the Zervos lawsuit, but has not discussed her claim publicly since the election.
Edited From: “What Happened To The 20 Women Who Accused Trump Of Sexual Misconduct”
New York Magazine, 2/26/19
You have posted about a thousand words. None of them talk about the subject of Jonathan Turley’s article. All you do is try to drag Donald Trump into your narrative. Perhaps you could dedicate one of your posts to talk about Tara Reade or the Washington Post word salad?
HawaiiRodney, ‘who’ are ‘you’??? Just dropped in out of the blue to tell Seth he shouldn’t be mentioning these women??
This is Paint Chips (Seth) acting like another alias to support himself. He does this all the time to garner agreement. That is the type of guy(?) he is. He bitterly complains when someone uses an alias and thinks the moderator should stop that type of action but it is he who is one of the main abusers of anonymous posting. If there is a posting in favor of Paint Chips and the anonymous poster is unrecognized then it likely is Paint Chips himself doing the posting.
Rodney,
You’ve got him absolutely correct. If history repeats itself, you should expect him to respond to you by questioning your identify and motives. He does this by the way because lacks a functioning left half of his brain. If you see a Paint Chips reference from myself or other contributors, that’s Seth. He’s earned it.
If you see a Paint Chips reference from myself or other contributors, that’s Seth.
Oh, and when he wants to pretend he’s got an admirer, he’ll post as Anonymous.
I hear your voice crying in the wilderness but it should come as no surprise that Democrats have different standards with regard to race and sex when their icons are implicated.
The allegations against Kavanaugh had no supportive evidence at all. Those against Biden do.
The accusers couldn’t even demonstrate that they knew Kavanaugh other than by sight, Ms. Reade can prove that she worked for Biden.
Blasey-Ford was shown to have lied and misled the Judiciary Committee, claiming among other things that she was afraid to fly while flying up and down he east coast vacationing. She didn’t let Grassley know she was close to DC. She lied about the reason she had two entrances to her home.
So far Tara Reade has not been shown to be dishonest. There are questions to be sure, including why she states she plans to vote for Biden but at least she should be allowed to have her accusations addressed.
Strange how Kavanaugh was accused of acting guilty because he did not clamor for an FBI investigation but Biden is given a pass for not even addressing the matter.
Biden should have due process including the presumption of innocence but there should be a full and public airing of this matter. In Biden’s defense though, he may lack the mental capacity to mount a defense.
One thing to remember. He’s a socialist party member therefore automatically everyone else is guilty and he never had a thing to do with it.
So sayeth the Party that has as one of it;s main plank support of victimizing women and vote for the victimizers.
“Unpopular ideas can be silenced, and inconvenient facts kept dark, without the need for any official ban. Anyone who has lived long in a foreign country will know of instances of sensational items of news — things which on their own merits would get the big headlines-being kept right out of the British press, not because the Government intervened but because of a general tacit agreement that ‘it wouldn’t do’ to mention that particular fact. So far as the daily newspapers go, this is easy to understand. The British press is extremely centralised, and most of it is owned by wealthy men who have every motive to be dishonest on certain important topics. But the same kind of veiled censorship also operates in books and periodicals, as well as in plays, films and radio. At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to say this, that or the other, but it is ‘not done’ to say it, just as in mid-Victorian times it was ‘not done’ to mention trousers in the presence of a lady. Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing, either in the popular press or in the highbrow periodicals.”
~George Orwell, Animal Farm
Timely reference mespo. Bias rarely occurs in the light of day. We’re probably never going to hear someone like Dan Rather say, “I did this, because I wanted more people to vote for Kerry. I don’t care for George W. Bush, or any Republicans. I want Democrats to win, and I’m going to do everything in my power, as an anchor of a major news network to make that happen. I don’t care about any hints of duplicity or hypocrisy, I want Democrats to win.” Some people are never able to see bias, but once they see it, they’re never able to “unsee” it.
Didn’t realize hallucinations were a symptom of COVID-19. Get well soon.
“Didn’t realize hallucinations were a symptom of COVID-19. Get well soon.”
********************
Don’t worry YN ON, serious stuff like this is over your head.
“It is important to note that columnists and reporters like Washington Post reporter Matt Viser do not write headlines or approve them.”
*****************************************
No, but they do write the lede:
“Some allies of President Trump pointed Monday to new claims by a woman who said she was told about sexual assault allegations against Joe Biden decades ago, renewing attention to questions about the past behavior of the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.”
Milk meet toast. Wapo reporters for ya.
Should read:
“Reade Neighbor Corroborates Biden Assault”
THANK YOU JONATHAN TURLEY for being one of the few balanced voices in our country. It is greatly appreciated.
The Democrats are the champions of double standards and lack of principles.
If it wasn’t for double standards they would have no standards at all.
🙂