Joe Biden breaks month-long silence on sexual assault allegations
Fox News contributor Lisa Boothe breaks down how the media covered Biden's comments.
Former Vice President Joe Biden’s disastrous interview Friday on “Morning Joe” on MSNBC has caused more problems for the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee than it solved. Biden’s denial of an allegation by a former member of his Senate staff that he sexually assaulted her in 1993 was followed Saturday by a call from The New York Times for a further investigation.
When the paper dedicated to seeing Donald Trump become a one-term president turns on his challenger, you know the Democrats are facing a serious problem
This is the same New York Times that earlier published an article saying it “found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Biden” after examining the assault allegation made by former Biden staffer Tara Reade. She alleges that 27 years ago then-Sen. Biden pushed her against a wall in the empty hallway of a Senate office building, reached under her skirt and penetrated her with his fingers.
NEW YORK TIMES CALLS FOR DNC INVESTIGATION INTO BIDEN SEXUAL ASSAULT CLAIMS
The Times Editorial Board said in its editorial that that “the stakes are too high to let the matter fester – or leave it to be investigated by and adjudicated in the media.” This from the newspaper that attempted to do just that only a few weeks earlier.
Biden’s MSNBC interview didn’t silence his critics – it emboldened them.
“Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski hit Biden on his hypocrisy, pointedly noting to him that “you said that women should be believed.”
More from Opinion
Many Democrats made the same argument when they said in 2018 that Trump Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh should not be confirmed. Kavanaugh, who now serves on the high court, was accused of sexual misconduct while he was in high school – with no supporting evidence beyond the claim of his accuser. He vehemently denied the accusation.
Biden’s answers about the alleged sexual assault against Reade were filled with enough stammers to make nice opposition commercials. What he might have assumed would be a softball interview by an anti-Trump cable news channel turned into hardball. And since we don’t have any sports to watch, a lot of people noticed.
The very next day Biden got hit with criticism from The New York Times. The liberal newspaper went from covering up the allegations against Biden to suddenly wanting more detail.
The Times editorial even called for an investigation into “the trove of records from Mr. Biden’s Senate career that he donated to the University of Delaware in 2012.” Biden rejected that idea during his ill-fated TV interview.
The Times editorial was specific about the type of inquiry it wanted – but it’s not one voters could trust.
“The Democratic National Committee should move to investigate the matter swiftly and thoroughly, with the full cooperation of the Biden campaign,” the Times editorial said.
So the political party that is dominating the candidate it wants to defeat President Trump in November is also investigating the presumptive candidate? This is hardly convincing. In fact, it’s about as big a conflict of interest as anyone can imagine.
Funny how the Times never called for the Republican National Committee to investigate allegations of Trump-Russia collusion in the 2016 election, but instead supported an inquiry by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The Times also supported the House impeachment inquiry against Trump, rather than an RNC inquiry.
The Times editorial was specific about the type of inquiry it wanted – but it’s not one voters could trust.
Still, this pressure on Biden is a change from the way the Times usually treats the former vice president. It produced a whitewashed story headlined “Examining Tara Reade’s Sexual Assault Allegation Against Joe Biden” April 12. The paper had waited 19 days, by its own count, before running the story and then modified it to placate the Biden campaign.
Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet said he wanted readers to “have all the information” –
except the Times was embarrassed by a follow-up story from The Intercept. That piece mentioned a call Reade’s mother made anonymously to CNN’s “Larry King Live” program in 1993.
In the call, Reade’s mother complained about problems her daughter had with a “prominent senator” without going into specifics. The Times left that fact out of its editorial even now.
But there was more to this switch than just the call for an investigation. The Times buried its real reasoning at the end of the editorial. The editorial tied allegations against Biden to ones against President Trump.
The editorial argued that “those claims also should be investigated, and the Republicans concerned about Mr. Biden’s behavior now should be at least equally focused on the questions about Mr. Trump’s.”
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR OPINION NEWSLETTER
That’s always the goal for the left-wing media – get Trump.
Many in politics and news considered Biden’s presidential campaign doomed even after he ran the table in the primaries. Following repeated gaffes, his campaign did all it could to hide him from any chance to make more mistakes.
In addition, some in the anti-Trump media have been promoting Biden’s potential replacement as the Democratic presidential nominee almost daily – New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who by a remarkable coincidence just happens to be the brother of CNN anchor Chris Cuomo.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The call by the Times for a further investigation of Biden could be legitimate. The newspaper might well be willing to sacrifice the stumbling Biden candidacy to get a candidate with a better chance of defeating Trump.
And, of course, if Biden ends his candidacy under pressure because of the sexual assault allegation the Times could then argue that Trump should withdraw as well from the presidential race because he has also been accused of sexual assault and other sexual misconduct by women.
Get the recap of top opinion commentary and original content throughout the week.