The Partisan Party: Democrats should not dismiss the sexual assault allegations against Joe Biden

The Democratic party is in shambles: former Vice President Joe Biden has been accused of sexually assaulting Tara Reade. According to The Washington Post, Reade alleges that Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993 when she was a Senate aide managing interns. The Biden campaign vehemently denies the accusations. 

Biden supporters are doing everything they can to point out inconsistencies and flaws within Reade’s story and are vengefully attacking any person who refuses to immediately deny any wrongdoing on Biden’s part. 

Chris Hayes, the host of MSNBC’s “All In With Chris Hayes” news segment, said that we have to “take seriously what is being alleged and what the evidence is, and to evaluate it.” Hayes then discussed both sides of the allegation — both the inconsistencies and the parts corroborated by others. 

Once his coverage aired, #FireChrisHayes started trending on Twitter as flocks of Democrats —  who once attacked Republicans for not believing Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations against Justice Brett Kavanaugh — called on MSNBC to fire Hayes.

This behavior is unacceptable: Reade’s allegations demand action yet instead of calling for a full investigation, Democrats all over the country are immediately dismissing her story. 

Let’s examine the allegations:  Reade states that Biden pushed her against a wall and that his “his hands [were] everywhere” without her consent. The New York Times conducted an investigation and interviewed multiple staffers who worked with Biden when the alleged assault occurred and discovered that all the staffers found the alleged actions inconsistent with Biden’s character. 

However, The New York Times also reported that two of Reade’s friends recalled Reade telling them about Biden inappropriately touching her — one soon after the alleged assault and the other 15 years later in 2008. Furthermore, multiple women have accused Biden of inappropriately placing his hand around their hips and shoulders without permission. 

One of these women, Lucy Flores, also alleged that Biden kissed the top of her head and touched her inappropriately without permission. Flores told The New York Times that “Biden very clearly was invading women’s spaces without their consent in a way that made them feel uncomfortable.”  

Yet, some people are casting doubt upon Reade’s story because of her political history. The publishing platform Medium called into question Reade’s story because of her support for Biden’s actions to stop sexual assault in the past. The outlet also discussed  an article Reade wrote in Russian and examined whether she wrote words in masculine or feminine forms.

Instead of focusing on witnesses or trying to interview Reade herself, the article focused on facts that were wholly irrelevant to proving whether Reade’s accusations were true or not. 

Other prominent women have not questioned Biden’s actions and have stated that they believe him. One of these women is Stacey Abrams, who, according to CNN, stated that she believed Biden because a New York Times article found that Reade’s accusations were not credible. 

However, CNN examined the exact article from the New York Times and found that the paper did not state that the claims were not credible. Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, also dismissed the claims and simply stated that “Joe Biden is Joe Biden.”  This is the polar opposite of  Pelosi’s response when Ford accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault. 

Comparing this case to Ford’s allegations against Kavanaugh, there are clear parallels that can be made. In 2018, when Ford accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault at a party during the summer 1982, she too had a friend who backed her story up. Multiple people also stated that Kavanaugh was a heavy drinker who went to many parties. 

There was also some doubt to Ford’s story — witnesses who corroborated the story said that they had no recollection of Kavanaugh ever at that specific party. However, instead of turning against Ford, Democrats all over the country supported her and pushed for an investigation into Kavanaugh. 

This is not the time to do a full 180 degrees on the Me Too movement: Democrats cannot immediately rebuke possible victims when one of their own is accused. Instead, we must call for a full investigation with public interviews of Biden, Reade, his campaign staff and every person who might have knowledge of the alleged assault.