Last night CNN’s Don Lemon asked Stacey Abrams about the sexual assault allegations against Joe Biden, and of course she claimed they had been investigated by the NY Times and thus are not credible:
Video: On CNN, Stacey Abrams bashes Tara Reade — "I believe that women deserve to be heard….But I also believe that those allegations have to be investigated by credible sources. The New York Times did a deep investigation and they found that the accusation was not credible" pic.twitter.com/mi1QwJfiME
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 29, 2020
What isn’t apparent from the interview is that Stacey Abrams is just regurgitating Biden campaign talking points that they distributed yesterday to top Democrat operatives regarding Tara Reade and her assault accusations:
“Biden believes that all women have the right to be heard and to have their claims thoroughly reviewed,” the talking points read, according to a copy sent to two Democratic operatives. “In this case, a thorough review by the New York Times has led to the truth: this incident did not happen.”
“Here’s the bottom line,” they read. “Vice President Joe Biden has spent over 40 years in public life: 36 years in the Senate; 7 Senate campaigns, 2 previous presidential runs, two vice presidential campaigns, and 8 years in the White House. There has never been a complaint, allegation, hint or rumor of any impropriety or inappropriate conduct like this regarding him — ever.”
That’s almost exactly what Abrams told Lemon. She must really want to be Biden’s VP pick!
As far as this NY Times article, they never claimed it did not happen. Their main claim was that, after interviewing a bunch of people that Biden worked with in the early 90s, they “found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Biden”:
The Times interviewed Ms. Reade on multiple days over hours, as well as those she told about Mr. Biden’s behavior and other friends. The Times has also interviewed lawyers who spoke to Ms. Reade about her allegation; nearly two dozen people who worked with Mr. Biden during the early 1990s, including many who worked with Ms. Reade; and the other seven women who criticized Mr. Biden last year, to discuss their experiences with him.
No other allegation about sexual assault surfaced in the course of reporting, nor did any former Biden staff members corroborate any details of Ms. Reade’s allegation. The Times found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Biden.
Not finding a pattern is not the same thing as saying it did not happen. Not even remotely.
And now we have two other sources, not including Reade’s own brother, who have come forward and said she discussed it with them – one of whom said Reade was crying as she discussed it in detail back in the early 90s and recounted what Reade had told her, which matches what Reade is saying now. Not to mention that call from Reade’s mother into the Larry King Live show in the 90s as well, referencing the assault allegation.
If Christine Blasey Ford had this level of credibility around her accusations, it’s unlikely that Kavanaugh would have been confirmed by the Senate in 2018. Yet Stacey Abrams and other Democrats are dismissing it out of hand because Biden is their last hope of defeating Trump in November and they can’t risk losing him now. It’s pathetic. As Matt Vespa tweeted earlier today, “Believe all women is dead.”