I originally had many doubts about the veracity to Tara Reade’s account of being sexual assaulted by Joe Biden especially after reading this USA Today article. In fact, earlier today I put a diary on which simply presented a comment to a Slate article which said that female Senate staffers customarily wore pantyhose.
One of the commenters there said that Tara Reade had said she hadn’t been wearing hose that day because it was so hot. The commenter said that there was a rule that women wear pantyhose if they worked in the Senate. I decided to try to track that down and found the interview (below) where Reade explained this saying that because it was so hot she wasn’t wearing hose. (I unpublished that diary.)
Before you comment if you take this matter seriously it would seem to be fair to suggest you listen to it.
The transcript of the interview is here.
I had no idea this interview existed. Before any of us jumps to the conclusion that Biden is to believed when he states “unequivocally” that it didn’t happen, I think if this is important to us it behoves us to listen to the entire interview like I did.
Eventually Tara Reade may consent to a television interview where we can see her affect in addition to hearing it in her voice. (Update: She did and it is at the end of this diary.)
Here’s the conclusion of the interview:
You know, words are like arrows, they find their mark. And, you know, in my case the words he said to me* found their mark. He made me feel like it was my fault. He made me feel like I was insignificant and that I had no power. And I look back at that and I see him talking about running on a platform of “character” and I just want to scream, like I want to scream. “How dare you? How dare you talk about all the things you’ve done for women when I know who you are. I see you, I experienced you and that’s not who you are.” And, yeah, it is just time for all of this to stop.
So you know… people are going to say “why come out now?”
Well, I’ve been trying and no one’s been giving me a platform. So thank you for allowing me to speak on your show and I appreciate that because I have tried, so if [people are asking why I didn’t come out sooner], don’t, I’ve been trying for a while. Well, thank you so much.
* She is referring to this. She said this with great affect and her voice breaking.
The something he said that I didn’t want to say, and I didn’t want to say it because it’s the thing that stays in my head over and over, like it’s the thing that kind of stayed with me over the years. But he said, when he had me against the wall after he had done, after I pulled away and he had said, “Hey, c’mon, I heard you liked me?” And I knew he was angry right after [that because] he took his finger, he just pointed at me and he said, “You’re nothing to me.” And then he, he just looked at me and he goes, “You’re nothing, nothing.” And then I must have reacted. And I think he only said it twice… but I just heard the word nothing. And…and I must’ve reacted because that’s when he took me by the shoulders and he said, you know, you’re okay, you’re fine. You’re okay. But then afterwards, like it kept replaying in my head…last April when all that stuff came out, I got really, really sad about it. And the thing that I remember most, almost more than the assault itself was just being told I was nothing. And he was right. That’s how people treated me off the street. And I have no platform. I am no one. And to him I’m nothing.
If we accept that there might be a very dark side of Joe Biden that he has up until now successfully hid, we aren’t going to change our vote. However, as out of character as so many people who have known Joe Biden for many years say it is that he’d do what is alleged, it still awfully disturbing, at least to me, to even consider he might have violated Tara Reade the way she says he did.
Sunday, May 3, 2020 · 4:19:25 PM +00:00 · HalBrown
I JUST ADDED A POLL. I think those who are expressing doubt about Tara Reade’s allegation should say whether or not they listened to the interview. I know spending a full hour doing so may be asking too much but I did it before expressing my opinion. I happen to have had some experience interviewing women who were victims of sexual assault either many years before they got into therapy or recently since I was a therapist for 40 years.
Also — please refrain from insulting me. You can disagree with what I say but personal attacks have no place in Daily Kos.
Sunday, May 3, 2020 · 5:39:29 PM +00:00 · HalBrown
I just came across this thanks to a commenter. I only am suggesting that she “sounded” credible. I hope people not jump to conclusions and keep politics out of their judgment as to the veracity of her allegations. There are well documented reasons to question the truth of the story, but I think Kos readers ought to inform themselves before jumping to conclusions.