WE’VE DESCENDED INTO SOME SORT OF BIZARRE HELL-WORLD IN WHICH ANDREW SULLIVAN IS A VOICE OF SANITY: By Biden’s Own Standards, He Is Guilty As Charged.
If I were asked to detail an incident that happened a quarter-century ago, absent serious trauma, I’d be completely stumped. There’s a reason for statutes of limitation. And a reason that in a liberal society an individual is deemed innocent until proven guilty.
Nonetheless, I tend to believe women on these matters as a starting point. They have to endure all sorts of exposure and embarrassment for coming forward, and their claims should always be treated respectfully, compassionately, and fairly. It’s been a serious gain for civilized life that women are not routinely ignored or universally trashed for protesting against their assaulters and harassers. Some trust for all women is vital.
But just as vital in a liberal society is verification. I believe strongly in due process, especially with grave allegations of sexual assault. Revolutionaries, like those behind the Shitty Media Men list, don’t care if an individual is unfairly accused because, well, in the grand scheme of things, the ends justify the means.
And Andrew has quite a bit of experience in the “ends justify the means” department. Andrew’s othering of Sarah Palin in 2008 — and by extension her supporters — was a key mile marker on the road to Trump.
Related: Tough new Trump ad: The Democratic double standard on believing women.
As a matter of raw politics, the Reade allegation will benefit Trump by deterring Biden from making an issue of alleged sexual misconduct by the president. The more Team Trump flaunts its hypocrisy by targeting Biden over Reade, though, the more Democrats will want to hit back. That’s what’s clever about the ad — it doesn’t go so far as to claim that Biden is actually guilty, merely that he should be judged guilty by his party’s own dumb standards. That’s safer ground.
While the New York Times is finally talking about Reade, note the line at the end of this excerpt of Ben Smith’s column:
You don’t have to believe Mr. Clinton assaulted Ms. Broaddrick in 1978. If you’re a journalist, it doesn’t really matter what you believe, as long as you report what you know. But the handling of Ms. Broaddrick’s story was one of the most damaging media mistakes of the Clinton years. And the treatment of Mr. Clinton’s accusers by the Democratic Party and the media alike is one of the original sins that led to today’s divided, partisan news environment.
The mainstream American media in 1999, for reasons that are hard to explain or excuse today, got cold feet on a credible allegation of rape against the president.
“Hard to explain.” Ben Smith is bensmithing away the second half of the 1990s in Washington, DC.
More: Tara Reade Is Joe Biden’s Eighth Accuser. Possibly ninth? Woman says Biden sexually harassed her when she was 14.
And finally, in yet another tone-deaf move by Biden and his handlers signaling the end of the #MeToo era: Biden nominates Chris Dodd of ‘waitress sandwich’ fame to help shop for female vice presidential candidates.