Sexual assault allegation clouds Biden's presumptive nomination decades after Clarence Thomas hearing
'Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words' director Michael Pack weighs in.
With six months to go until the 2020 presidential election, 77-year-old former Vice President Joe Biden is campaigning in his basement and loving life.
Sleepy Joe lets his consultants tell him what to think and what to tweet, limits his gaffes and tries to control his message. And since he can’t hold campaign rallies due to the coronavirus pandemic, the world can’t see the energy vacuum he creates during the largely incomprehensible rambling speeches he used to give in half-empty high school cafeterias.
Yes, other than seeing New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo grabbing a lot more news coverage that he is getting, these are easy days for Joe Biden. He’s got the luxury of being able to sit back and criticize President Trump from the cheap seats as the president deals with the enormous challenges associated with the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis.
If nothing else, Biden is demonstrating that he’s an extremely talented Monday morning quarterback, which is not a redeeming quality for a real leader.
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Biden is practicing what I call the “Tahiti strategy” – staying off the grid until Election Day so you don’t make any unforced errors. In other circles, it’s called the “prevent defense.” But as we all know, sometimes choosing this minimalist approach prevents you from winning the game.
The coronavirus pandemic has created for Biden something of a forced Tahiti strategy and at the moment it’s buoying him in the polls a bit. Although just a snapshot in time, recent survey data is indicating that the Trump-Biden match-up will make for yet another highly competitive presidential election contest.
For instance, even in the midst of extreme economic hardship created by the COVID-19 pandemic, the latest Reuters-Ipsos poll found that Americans believe that the president “was better suited to create jobs” by a margin of 45 percent to just 32 percent for Biden.
In an election that will likely come down to a virtual coin flip in many battleground states, these numbers showing a sizeable advantage for President Trump in the all-important category of job creation are telling.
As President Trump gets brutalized by Biden’s allies in the Trump-hating media – who criticize his every move for purely political purposes – Biden is instead treated with kid gloves. His media supporters know that one good punch would put him on the canvas.
As evidence, look no further than the brewing Tara Reade scandal. The mainstream media went out of its way not to ask Biden about her serious, credible, and corroborated claims of sexual assault against him. It was only when the situation reached critical mass that Biden was forced to do an interview to answer questions about the alleged 1993 assault.
The interview with MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski made it clear why Biden hasn’t held a press conference in 34 days. When left to his own devices, Sleepy Joe is a disaster waiting to happen.
In light of the Reade allegations, we can only imagine how Biden would handle tough questions on topics such as the new Title IX sexual misconduct standards and due process protections for campuses that the Education Department released this week.
Mr. Vice President, does the Democratic Party support due process in sexual assault cases or not? Why in your case and not now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s?
The only positive thing for Biden coming out of the interview with Brzezinski is that he was able to deny the charges on the record without blowing himself up on national television. The downside is much more plentiful.
For reasons that don’t pass the smell test, Biden is refusing to open all of his records during his career in the U.S. Senate for public inspection. He says a review of those papers – held at the University of Delaware – would give his opponents the opportunity to take his record in the Senate out of context.
“There’s a lot of … speeches I’ve made, positions I’ve taken, interviews that I did overseas with people, all of those things relating to my job,” Biden said. “|And the idea that they would be made public … while I was running for public office, they could be really taken out of context.”
This mind-blowing statement is the epitome of Joe Biden the out-of-touch career politician straight from the swamp. Does he really think the American people aren’t paying attention?
Biden makes a habit of bragging about his career in the Senate and uses his 36 years there as one of the reasons he should be elected president. He is essentially asking voters to just take his word for it when it comes to his record in the Senate. Unfortunately for Biden, the American people want proof. So his records at the University of Delaware must be opened.
During his interview with Brzezinski, Biden tried his best to convince her that any complaint filed against him by Reade wouldn’t be stored in Delaware, but more likely in the U.S. Senate or National Archives. While this may turn out to be true, what about notes, letters, photos, or memos-to-file concerning Reade? This is why Biden must allow a search.
However, opening the vault in Delaware is not just about records relating to Tara Reade. Biden is interviewing to be president of the United States and the American people are entitled to see the body of his work during the three-plus decades he spent in the Senate.
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If Biden keeps the vault sealed, the chants of “what’s Biden hiding” will grow louder every day.
Is Biden hiding his record on busing? His relationships with segregationist senators? His papers in support of the Iraq War? His treatment of Anita Hill? His support for cutting Social Security? His beliefs about criminal justice reform? His meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin?
These questions are not going away.
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At some point, Biden is going to have to come out of the basement and face the music. No one is handed the presidency; you have to earn it.
We know President Trump the ferocious campaigner will be asking these questions in every battleground state and at all three presidential debates –- where Biden will have no place to hide and no one to lean on. Hopefully, the mainstream media will do its job and ask Biden the tough questions as well.
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