Joe Biden, Senator from Citibank (oops, DELAWARE), to Run for President

Supposedly addressing this tomorrow morning.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8275593/Joe-Biden-break-silence-staffers-sexual-assault-claims.html

Not a show I want to watch but I will.

I would expect a denial. He'll say the allegation is 100% false, while not directly calling Reade a liar. For trimmings, he'll cite how well he gets along with women colleagues, and how much he respects women, and how wonderful the MeToo movement is, with a nod to how women are our mothers, sisters and wives. iow, almost certainly nothing to see here.

Anything resembling an admission, confession, or apology, would genuinely shock me and I'm getting too old to be shocked by much. But I do think that it is the only tiny escape hatch he has, because it would get in front of the story and move the conversation away from suspicions, investigations, denunciations, and such, to the possibility of healing, forgiveness and reconciliation. Or else give us a new nominee.

Another rock-solid take from Jacobin:

In 2016, Republicans scrambled to force Donald Trump out of the race over his sexual assault allegations. Today, the Democratic establishment is united in dismissing the same allegations against Joe Biden. It says a lot about the party of "believe women." https://t.co/dmJ2A32RIG

— Jacobin (@jacobinmag) April 30, 2020

honestly, fuck the democrats

if this is the route they're taking, fuck em

Jacobin otm!

Jacobin otm!

On which planet did the Republicans "scrambled to force Donald Trump out of the race over his sexual assault allegations"? Because I can tell you that here on Earth, it didn't go down like that.

They did. The head of the rnc, reince preibus, got on the acela so the story goes and ran to trump tower to beg him to drop out. And Trump told him to fuck off.

who gives a shit? we're not republicans

xp

Granted, this is via woodward, so grain of salt. I think this essentially was the reality though. In autumn 2016 it did not look like the Trump show would be a winning strategy for the GOP and they were bracing themselves for a post-Trump future.

And that man who molested over a dozen women and bragged about it... became the President of the United States of America. And that's the rest of the story!

But yeah Brad otm. It’s just the inconsistency in how the Democrats ate treating this is dizzying.

Nothing to do with Biden.

My memory of what happened after the Access Hollywood tape is a little cloudy in terms of Republican reaction. I remember Jason Chaffetz bailing, and how he decided later everything was okay. Anyway, here's a roundup.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/headline-republicans-react-trump-comments-objectifying-women

Republicans obviously weren't worried about sexual assault out of personal objection but because they feared it would damage his chances in the election - they stopped caring the minute that there was no fallout from the public.

Democrats are hoping the same holds true here because a significant portion also don't think that sexual assault by their colleague/friend/etc. is disqualifying in and of itself, but they're once again betting on rules and standards being applied equally - which they never are. A credible sexual assault allegation hurts Biden far worse than an outright conviction would hurt Trump.

I just skimmed but "an alarmed Republican establishment scrambled to force Donald Trump out of the race" seems more or less accurate, and then the majority of them managed to unscramble themselves by the time of the election.

At that time they thought he had single digit odds of winning. They wanted to cut their losses. It wasn’t principled at all—I don’t think the social media intern at Jacobin was implying it was.

A little magician named Comey also swung decideds decidedly in Trump's direction too.

Ok whoa. Hold it.

Comey isn’t little. He is like 6’8”.

I apologize.

2'4" of that is a forehead cyst

Biden to donors on a virtual fundraiser yesterday: he'd consider picking a Republican to serve in his cabinet "if they're the best-qualified person" & might announce cabinet picks when he reveals his VP pick later this summer.

Biden on a virtual fundraiser co-hosted by Buttigieg tonight:
“I view myself as a transition candidate… My job is… to bring the Mayor Petes of the world into this administration."

the difference that gets smaller every year

He'll be on Morning Joe at 7:30 to answer questions specifically about the allegations.

https://medium.com/@JoeBiden/statement-by-vice-president-joe-biden-7a9593bd3012

live now

a) why the hell is this on Medium

b) I, me, me, I, I, I, me, I, I, me, I, me, me, I, me, we should listen to women.

Headed back to bed...Personally, I didn't find Biden that convincing this morning. A lot of "to the best of my knowledge"-type phrasing. He also had this habit of stopping on a dime after a few words and waiting for the questioner to come back. That may be a discipline thing because of his habit of rambling, but it could also be a desire to address it in as few words as possible and move on to something else. I always think in these situations--and this goes way way back to the early '90s, when there were a couple of years of constant scandals involving high-profile people--that the most obvious reaction if someone blindsides you with a false accusation is visible anger. This may be completely unfair, and I know it's all speculation, but I didn't see any anger this morning.

He repeated "It never happened. Period" like a mantra. He's really fucked if there are more, ah, developments.

He also had this habit of stopping on a dime after a few words and waiting for the questioner to come back. That may be a discipline thing because of his habit of rambling, but it could also be a desire to address it in as few words as possible and move on to something else.

It could also be an attempt to keep his stuttering under control. Stress and tension exacerbate speech impediments.

In the primary debates, too, he often stopped himself short and said "My time is up."

Did he pronounce the hashtag

"President Putin has an alluring combination of strength with gentleness. His sensuous image projects his love for life, the embodiment of grace while facing adversity... President Putin's obvious reverence for women, children and animals, and his ability with sports is intoxicating to American women."

https://web.archive.org/web/20190404043945/https:/medium.com/@shewrites94/why-a-liberal-democrat-supports-vladimir-putin-f54ca2a3a405

Well, I had planned to spend a good chunk of time reading Tara's old tweets to find ones that seemed to be written in a Russian accent.

I only made it 2 weeks back before I ran out of space for more examples.

These are the red flags I found JUST from the last 2 weeks. pic.twitter.com/75reNT709P

— 🥈🄻🄸🅉🄱🅄🅁🄶🄷🥈 (@lizburgh) April 29, 2020

Oh for fucks sake

interesting choice of words

if you have a "point" to make, why not just make it? I doubt you're going to get fewer FPs for posting someone else's insinuations

I really hope you’re posting that “tweets written in a Russian accent” thing as an example of the deranged lengths people are willing to go to in order to defend this asshole.

oh cool she tweets like an older person who didn't grow up using twitter and skips articles to save characters, thank you so much "propaganda detector"

I had seen that post on Twitter and was considering posting it yesterday and thought “why subject people to this shit, it just made me feel worse, it’s not even worth mocking.”

i don't have a point, joestork. i didn't know much about her besides that she'd worked for biden. that putin essay is interesting

oh boy

https://i.imgur.com/MoxobEd.png

the national conversation continues

Tara Reade tells us that at the time, in 1993, she complained to the Senate personnel office that Biden had "made her feel uncomfortable," but she says she did not mention an assault and she has no record of the complaint. Biden calling for any records to be released.

— Mary Bruce (@marykbruce) May 1, 2020

written in a Russian accent

I won't believe this until I see her tweeting "Kill moose and squirrel."

apparantly Tara Reade wrote that *checks Twitter* that in old country, television watch you

if Biden did pick Romney as his running mate it might actually push him to the left!

I’m introducing #PatriotPay because our essential workers—those putting themselves in greater risk on the frontlines of #COVID19—deserve our unwavering support. For more information on my plan to help ensure essential workers receive greater compensation→ https://t.co/NCznX3VgVc

— Senator Mitt Romney (@SenatorRomney) May 1, 2020

good ol' Liquid Swords is going to DEMOLISH Trump on the videoconference debate screen

https://twitter.com/robdelaney/status/1256229626369753089

(hold up, just seeing if this one embeds)

Biden gives you so many moments where you’re like... What does that sentence mean? Did he answer the question? pic.twitter.com/JiDUlxQSve

— Simon Narode (@SimonNarode) May 1, 2020

Not answering the question is practiced by 99.44% of politicians, just as asking softball, pointless, leading, or loaded questions is practiced by 99.44% of television journalists.