Remember the Kavanaugh hearings?
We had to hear from scores and scores of liberal women, including representatives and senators, about how we need to “believe” all women and that every sexual assault allegation should be taken seriously.
It’s quickly unfolding, however, that many of those women treat allegations differently depending on who the accused is. Last month, it was announced that a former senate aide, Tara Reide, claims Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993.
Both Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren, senators on Joe Biden’s shortlist for a vice presidential pick, aggresively fought against Kavanaugh’s confirmation. When the shoe is on the other foot and Biden is the one facing allegations, they so far remain silent.
Fox News delivers the details on the senators’ silence:
A sexual assault allegation against presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden that was largely ignored in the mainstream media when it surfaced last month is starting to attract more attention, earning long stories in both The New York Times and Washington Post in recent days — but prominent Democrats continue to stay silent on the story, including most of the women who have been discussed as potential vice presidential picks.
The Biden campaign adamantly denies the allegation, as does a former staff member in Biden’s Senate office from the time of the alleged incident.
Fox News on Tuesday reached out to the offices of 16 of the women who have been speculated about as possible Democratic vice presidential nominees, including Sens. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., as well as Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla., former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and several others. None responded as of Wednesday morning.
Only three of the potential picks have commented publicly on the allegations, all this week. And they generally avoided commenting on the allegations directly.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., was asked about the allegations in an appearance on NPR Tuesday. She said women have the right to be heard and pointed to investigations by the media into the claims, while touting Biden’s past work on behalf of women.
“[I]n this case — and your listeners should look at the story — there was a thorough review by The New York Times. And I think that’s very important to have, especially involving public figures,” she said. “But I think when I look at — when I see Vice President Biden, someone I worked with, I see him on — a leader on domestic abuse — led the bill before people were even willing to talk about those horrific crimes and has really been a champion of abuses of power against women and has used his voice on the domestic abuse front in such a big way.”
Twitter so far has been a hotbed of criticism over the handling of the Biden allegations. Check out some of the responses so far:
The Huffington Post originally reported on the matter back in March:
A former aide to Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said this week that he sexually assaulted her in 1993, her most detailed account to date of his alleged inappropriate behavior.
Tara Reade, who was at the time serving as an aide in Biden’s senate office, told podcast host Katie Halper that Biden kissed her and penetrated her with his fingers without her consent. Reade said she pushed Biden off of her and he allegedly became annoyed and said: “Come on, man! I heard you liked me.”
“It was like everything shattered in that moment,” Reade told Halper in the interview, which was posted Wednesday. “He was, like, my father’s age. He was this champion of women’s rights in my eyes. I couldn’t believe it was happening.”
Reade alleges that after she pulled away from Biden, he pointed in her face and said, “You’re nothing to me.”
Last April, Reade was one of eight women to accuse the former vice president of inappropriate touching. Reade told the Intercept’s Ryan Grim this week that she only told the media part of her story at the time because she received an onslaught of harassment that instantly quieted her.
Biden, who later went on to be vice president before running for president himself, denied the allegation on Friday through his deputy campaign manager.
“Women have a right to tell their story, and reporters have an obligation to rigorously vet those claims,” Kate Bedingfield said in a statement to HuffPost. “We encourage them to do so, because these accusations are false.”
Reade alleged to Halper that she went through official channels to report sexual harassment in the office at the time, although she said she did not mention the alleged abuse in her complaint.
Also, take a look at this video from The Hill where they breakdown how the New York Times potentially covered up the story on Biden's sexual assault allegation:
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