[ad_1]
help to the editorial office! Without you, there are no 444.
On Thursday, another twist came to a story that would likely make American public life much more serious in an epidemic-free period: excerpts from Tara Reade’s first television interview accusing Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden of sexual harassment.
Reade first spoke on a podcast in late March that Biden had committed sexual violence against him in 1993. For a long time, only Biden’s staff responded to the allegations, then last week the former vice president was already in the public eye. , saying in an MSNBC interview that nothing is true of what Reade is claiming.
However, in an interview on Thursday, Reade insisted on his previous allegations and said he wanted Biden to leave the presidential race. He asked the Democratic politician to stand up for the public and be held accountable. He also said that if necessary, he would also undergo a lie investigation. This had been suggested by Biden before.
The interesting thing about the interview, by the way, was that it was not conducted by any of the main cable or news channels, but was a solo project by Megyn Kelly, one of the best-known and controversial presenters on American television. Kelly had also been harassed by Fox Newson Trump over a female abusive comment, and then had to leave NBC after a black-face scandal.)
The increasingly serious accusations
Reade first spoke publicly about the violence on March 25, when one appeared podcast interview, in which he said that in 1993, while working on Biden’s staff, the politician pressed him against the wall and penetrated his fingers. When Reade was released, he said the politician said he thought the woman liked him. The interview was soon followed by a report: According to a Vox summary, Reade went to the police on April 9.
Reade then told Business Invester that he had made the report because he had been harassed in the past and wanted to make it clear that he was willing to testify under oath or cooperate with any authority if necessary. Even if the incident happened 26 years ago. So not long after He recognized it on Twitter.Knowing that the case was out of date, he made the announcement simply as a precaution.
Intercept wrote on April 24 that Reade, he said, had complained about Biden to the senator’s office manager, Marianne Baker, in 1993. In response, Biden’s campaign team issued a statement on Baker’s behalf that The office manager stated that at no point in his career had he seen any signs that Biden had misbehaved with anyone and had received no complaints from anyone about it. Reade, however, alleges that in 1993 he also spoke of his harassment to a friend, brother and mother, several of whom confirmed this.
Biden’s campaign team has denied all of the allegations from the start, with its repeated statements that Reade’s allegations are simply untrue.
Vox also recalls that Reade was one of the women last year who publicly claimed that Biden had touched them before in a way that was uncomfortable for them. Reade then claimed that while he was still working in his office, Biden once grabbed him by the shoulder and touched his neck with his fingers. He did not mention the rape at the time. This year, he said he did not appear in public at the time with the gravest charge because he was not a witness, while several people saw the unpleasant touch.
According to Reade, even last year’s statement was enough to start harassing him: Journalists began to undermine his credibility, among other things, by picking up a 2018 blog post praising Vladimir Putin and calling him a Russian agent.
This marked a turning point: As a result of the archive recording, CNN had already written that Joe Biden should personally respond to Reade’s accusations, as one of the consequences of the #MeToo movement was precisely the promise to take seriously the words of the women who claim it. that an influential man harassed them
The interview took Biden and Reade to a new level. Reade’s indictment was a major topic in the American press, a few weeks ago only on the support side of Biden’s Democratic rival, left-wing Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, and on some right-wing surfaces. As a Reade individual, Sanders received support after Elizabeth Warren exited the race and the Democratic presidential nomination was still open. (Since then, Sanders has also screamed.) Because of this, publications related to the Reade affair have often been formed along the flaws of worldview within the Democratic Party, and the mainstream media has picked up the thread rather slowly.
But since then, it turns out, several newspapers have known about the story for a long time, but have had a hard time putting it together: Vox journalist Laura McGann has recently written in detail about how she tried to decipher the story and where she got trapped. According to McGann, Reade accused Bident of much less serious things last April: He spoke of the former vice president commenting on his feet, sometimes touching him, which made him feel uncomfortable, and when he spoke about this in office, he was pushed to a second. flat, they held him and so he had to leave (although he was not fired). There was no question of sexual abuse at the time, but the story of the politician who was abusing his power still piqued the interest of McGann, who had been trying to follow the story for months, finding many potential witnesses.
Now, in March, when Reade filed more serious allegations of harassment, a Vox journalist pulled out last year’s notes again and contacted the woman again. As McGann writes, Reade seemed honest.
No complaint
Reade’s aforementioned complaint, which he filed with the manager of Biden’s office at the time, did not yet refer to sexual violence, only minor crimes. McGann and Reade repeatedly attempted to unearth the document from various files, but were unsuccessful.
One idea is that the complaint could have been returned to the Senate office and then held by the University of Delaware, since Biden turned over the Senate documents to the university in 2012, on the condition that only two years later they could be made. public. enter the office. This has been extended when he announced that he will run for president. In any case, according to Biden, there should be no personnel documents among these documents, there are only notes and drafts of speech to back up his political work.
According to Biden, the complaint could be in the National Archives or in the Secretariat of the Senate, from which the presidential candidate also requested but received a negative response, since all these documents are strictly confidential.
In recent years, several women have appeared in public (including Reade) for Biden’s misbehavior in his presence. Former Nevada MP Lucy Flores wrote last spring about joining Joe Biden as vice president at a 2014 campaign event and kissing his head. Flores did not claim that something illegal had happened, but that made the incident very uncomfortable for him. Similar experiences have been reported by several who have worked for Biden in recent decades. What was said in the cases was that the women did not feel sexually accused, but they did and did not respect.
Vox then wrote extensively about the Creepy Uncle Joe phenomenon, which means Biden is even from a generation that has nothing to do with older men who touch, hug and “entertain” the younger women who appear in the neighborhood with comments. spicy. The world has changed a lot in the past decade, and this behavior is becoming less and less accommodating.
Shortly after Flores, and then several other women, reported on Biden’s unpleasant behavior in 2019, the politician released a statement that he had exchanged countless handshakes, hugs, and touches of support during his career, and said that he had never These would have been incorrect. If someone thinks they still feel this way, they will pay attention, but emphasized that it was never intended to cause discomfort.
It’s far from over
Meanwhile, the first material evidence in the case came to light: According to a court record, in 1996, Reade’s ex-husband spoke during his divorce law that his wife had a sexual harassment problem while working in the senator’s office. Joe Biden.
The development was first reported in a small California newspaper, but has been reported by major sites since then. According to the BBC, Reade’s brother, a former neighbor, and an old colleague also confirmed that Reade had told others what had happened. Reade was legally represented by an influential Manhattan attorney, Douglas Wigdor, who represented several of Harvey Weinstein’s victims.
In the coming weeks and months, you will have two big questions: On the one hand, will there be evidence to back up Reade’s claims? On the other hand, how the case could affect Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.
Republicans have already embarked on a communication campaign about the hypocrisy of Democrats: They will only be bothered by violence against women if it is not committed by someone in their circles.
Without a doubt, the accusations are of much greater importance within the Democratic field. In the 2016 campaign, several women made accusations of harassment and abuse against Donald Trump, and even a recording of Trump’s behavior emerged as acceptable to women, however, that did not cause further uncertainty in the president’s voting base. Democrats, on the other hand, have traditionally advocated for women’s equality, and the metoo campaign has also been pushed forward in full force; its main politicians had just defined themselves against Trump’s conception of “males,” often described as idiots and sexists.
[ad_2]
