WaPo editorial board calls for Biden to address Tara Reade allegations

[mystery-ak]

WaPo editorial board calls for Biden to address Tara Reade allegations
By Zack Budryk - 04/29/20 06:16 PM EDT

The Washington Post editorial board on Wednesday called on former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, to address allegations of a 1993 sexual assault from former aide Tara Reade and release documents relating to his Senate career.

In the editorial, the board says there are “no clear conclusions” regarding the accuracy of Reade’s account, but notes that the 1,875 boxes and 415 gigabytes of Senatorial records, which were donated to the University of Delaware in 2012, could confirm whether or not Reade filed a complaint over the alleged incident.

Examining the documents, the editorial board states, would not necessarily indicate belief or disbelief in Reade’s claims, but rather “a desire for the public to know all that’s able to be known, which ought to be in everyone’s interest.”


Biden has not directly addressed Reade’s allegations, but his campaign has stated “this never happened.” Despite the comment from his campaign, the former vice president himself should also directly address the allegation, the Washington Post editorial board wrote.

more
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/495362-washington-post-editorial-board-calls-for-biden-to-address-tara-reade

[Smokin Joe]

Uh Oh. WaPo? Now, Hillary will have to suit up for a rematch.

[Right_in_Virginia]

Biden himself should address the Tara Reade allegations and release relevant records
Washington Post, Apr 29, 2020, Editorial Board

TARA READE deserves to be heard, and voters deserve to hear her. They deserve to hear from Joe Biden, too.

The former vice president and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has yet to speak publicly about the allegation Ms. Reade has lodged against him: that when she was a member of his Senate staff in the 1990s, Mr. Biden pushed her against a wall and put his fingers up her skirt and then inside her. Mr. Biden’s campaign says “this never happened.” Contemporaneous accounts of Ms. Reade’s claim are counterweighted by the denials of her superiors at the time that she reported any misconduct, as well as inconsistencies in her retelling.

There are, at the moment, no clear conclusions. There may never be. But that is no excuse for not searching. One place to start is the records covering Mr. Biden’s 36-year Senate career, donated to the University of Delaware in 2012 and slated for release to the public two years after Mr. Biden “retires from public life.” These could contain confirmation of any complaint Ms. Reade made, either through official congressional channels or to the three other employees she claims she informed not specifically of the alleged assault but more generally of harassment. They could also contain nothing of the sort. Insisting on an inventory doesn’t mean one believes Ms. Reade or doesn’t believe her. It signals only a desire for the public to know all that’s able to be known, which ought to be in everyone’s interest.

There are 1,875 boxes and 415 gigabytes of electronic content, largely uncatalogued. Searching won’t be as easy as some might assume. But an inventory conducted with an eye toward releasing only relevant material could at least ascertain whether personnel records are part of this archive at all. Demands for the release of the entire trove invite a worthwhile debate about candidate disclosures, yet that’s not a battle that needs to be fought today. The narrower question is whether the public ought to have as much information as possible about an assault accusation against a presidential contender, and the answer is yes.

Another place to look is at the source: the candidate himself. Mr. Biden may have little to say besides what his campaign has already said — that he did not do this, and that this is not something he ever would do. Yet the way to signal he takes Ms. Reade’s case seriously, and the cases of women like her seriously, is to go before the media and the public ready to listen and to reply.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/biden-himself-should-address-the-tara-reade-allegations-and-release-relevant-records/2020/04/29/55a36694-8a45-11ea-9dfd-990f9dcc71fc_story.html

[PeteS in CA]

Christine Blasey Ford said nothing to anybody for over 30 years, had no corroboration, and people who supposedly could corroborate her story said they had no memory of it. To this day, there is no evidence Ford and Kavanaugh ever met. But the Dems and MSM told Americans she should be believed because of her reproductive plumbing.

OTOH, to date 4 people have said Reade contemporaneously told them about her claim, one of whom has since died, but her corroboration is on "tape". That doesn't prove her claim, but it far more than could be said for Christine Blasey Ford. Reade claims she filed a complaint against Biden, a fact that could be verified. Let the personnel records be opened.

I'll give the WashPost a single kudo for this editorial, They published it. But they first ignored or gave this story CYA-grade token coverage for several weeks. Hence just a single kudo.