Ronald W. Dixon · Apr 17 · Medium.com
Now that Bernie Sanders has dropped out of the presidential race, the corporate media is finally reporting on the credible sexual assault accusations that Tara Reade made against Joe Biden almost a month ago. Whereas independent media organizations have been reporting on these allegations for weeks now, it was only recently that a report from the New York Times helped to finally compel other large news entities to provide their own reporting on the credible claims.
Unfortunately, though, the so-called “reporting” that we’ve seen from these news organizations have viciously attempted to debunk Reade’s claims, applying significantly more scrutiny against her than Christine Blase Ford, the woman who credibly accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault. These attacks have included dredging-up her pro-Putin blog post, implying that she “changed her story” by only telling a part of it last year, arguing that she is a compromised Bernie Bro who was politically motivated, and questioning why she is coming forward now.
I’ve previously debunked the most common, anti-victim arguments being levied at Reade by journalists and Biden rape apologists, but it should be noted that, beyond a brief statement denying the allegations, the Biden campaign has been totally silent. What is more, the corporate media has failed to ask him about the allegations, despite his numerous television appearances since The Intercept and Katie Halper first reported on the sexual assault, and especially since Biden became the presumptive Democratic nominee.
The silence from Biden’s campaign is deafening; the same person who once claimed that we should believe women who tell their sexual assault stories is now hiding behind corporate media “journalists” who seem hell-bent on protecting their preferred candidate, the man they have treated with kid gloves throughout the primary process while viciously going after true progressives, such as Bernie Sanders.
If the media were truly doing their jobs, they would confront Biden directly about these allegations and ask him to provide a proper explanation, but unfortunately, the media places a disproportionate burden on rape victims while powerful perpetrators get to hide behind (im)plausible deniability, the statute of limitations, and the worship of “innocent until proven guilty”, a legal concept that should be upheld in the context of a criminal trial, not when it comes to believing sexual assault survivors.
More specifically, though, I would ask Biden to furnish evidence that he did not commit this act.
How can someone prove that something didn’t happen, though? While this would be an impossible task in most situations, especially because the act happened almost thirty years ago, Biden has the capacity to release his treasure trove of Senate records that have a good chance of containing the original sexual harassment complaint that Reade reported while working in his office.
These records, which contain 1,875 boxes and 415 gigabytes worth of documents from Biden’s long history in the United States Senate, are archived at the University of Delaware, but they are not open for the public to review. At the behest of Biden, the university will only release this information two years after the former vice president exits public life, long after the repercussions from any damning paperwork would actually pose any threat to his political aspirations.
By refusing to open these records for journalists and the American people to independently audit, the Biden campaign is, essentially, covering up the evidence that is likely stored away at the university.
Given the fact that Reade never received a copy of her official sexual harassment complaint at the time, the onus is now on Biden to allow us to review his catalog of records to find the paperwork that his office should have received after the complaint was made. Moreover, because the harassment complaint is a key element of Reade’s sexual assault claim, Biden is actively hiding the very sexual assault evidence that, if unveiled, would provide such a big blow to his already damaged credibility that even the corporate media would have to stop treating Biden like a child and actually ask him about the allegations.
Of course, if Biden demonstrated any ounce of transparency and allowed people to review his Senate records, we would also gain some insight into his terrible legislative record dating back to the 1970s, including his staunch opposition to racial desegregation, vigorous “tough on crime” votes that disproportionately targeted black men, advocacy for gutting Social Security, and terrible treatment of Anita Hill, among other topics. Unfortunately, though, given the corporate media’s bias for neo-liberal, establishment politicians, they will likely never ask Biden to release his archived records, especially now that a bombshell may be contained therein.
It is absolutely unacceptable that Biden continues to ignore these credible allegations. If he were truly an ethical leader, he would apologize for the sexual assault that he committed against Tara Reade, and if he wanted to show a modicum of transparency, he would instruct the University of Delaware to make his records viewable for all of us to see, such as through an online portal.
Beyond some sort of godly ethical enlightenment, though, Biden will continue remaining silent, and the corporate media will continue refusing to question him on the credible allegations, leading progressives who actually consistently uphold the tenets of the #MeToo movement, regardless of the party affiliation of the perpetrator, to seriously question whether or not they can support the “lesser of two rapists” in November.
If Biden wants to provide an iota of reassurance to the American people that he takes these allegations seriously, he should release his records to the public as soon as possible. Anything short of this is tantamount to a sexual assault cover-up.
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