It initially appeared that Tara Reade’s attempts to claim that Joe Biden had sexually assaulted her while she was an aide in his office were blown apart in rapid succession in a matter of weeks in May.
First, PBS Newshour reported that the physical evidence didn’t match her claim. By most accounts, the area near Biden’s office where Reade says the assault occurred is a very high-traffic area without any hidden places. It would be implausible to believe that a Senator would commit such a brazen attack, especially that soon after the Anita Hill imbroglio. Second, a number of stories came out from reporters who tried to corroborate her claims, and weren’t able to do so.
But third, and perhaps most seriously, Reade was exposed for misrepresenting her credentials—in some cases, doing so under oath. On several occasions over the years, prosecutors in Monterey County, California called Reade as an expert witness on domestic violence. But it turned out that she never got a degree from Antioch University Seattle, as she has long claimed. While it may look like this meets the real-world definition of perjury, prosecutors in Monterey County are investigating to see if it meets the legal one as well.
But none of this apparently mattered to the folks at NewsBusters, who gave Reade an interview on Wednesday in which she upbraided the media and newly-minted Biden running mate Kamala Harris for giving her the cold shoulder.
Reade told me: “Journalists should be asking her pointedly why there was a smear campaign on me and why Kamala was so aggressive and assertive with [then-Supreme Court nominee Brett] Kavanaugh and here she knows there is a credible sexual assault accusation against Senator Biden.”
As a frame of reference, Harris probed Kavanaugh during the 2018 hearings, at one point wondering: “Do you agree that it is possible for men to both be friends with some women and treat other women badly?”
Reade, a former Senate aide to Biden, wondered if Harris would “ignore it out of a will for power” or “will she hold Biden accountable? Will she be silent?” She cautioned, “To approach sexual violence as a partisan issue is not only dismissive to the survivors and dangerous to the victims. It is the reason why survivors are afraid to come forward.” Still, Reade concluded, “The Democratic Party has become an enabler to sexual predators.”
Um, Tara? There’s a reason why the media ignored you. They extensively vetted your claims, and found them to be non-credible. Moreover, your credibility now stands shot to pieces. You have been exposed as a serial embelisher and perjurer. It is possible that your lies about your credentials could have caused innocent people to be imprisoned, and also might result in manifestly guilty people going free.
No self-respecting prosecutor would bring an indictment on the word of someone with so many credibility issues. Granted, we’re dealing with a different standard than reasonable doubt here. But there is something wrong if you can even potentially blow up a presidential campaign on the word of an exposed perjurer who has been proven to have lied about her credentials. I would not be okay with this if an exposed liar and perjurer had made claims like this against Trump.
Unless I missed something, NewsBusters never asked Reade even ONCE to explain the inconsistencies between her claims and the physical evidence, or why she lied about her credentials. It leads one to wonder—is NewsBusters demanding that claims of sexual assault and domestic violence be chased down even when they are exposed as non-credible? Brent Bozell and the folks at Media Research Center should be ashamed of themselves for giving Reade a platform.
