Thread by @JohnWHuber

Just to add to this, yesterday @NPR did cover the Tara Reade allegation against Joe Biden. But check out how they framed it, as compared to those against Justice Kavanaugh

THREAD

https://twitter.com/JohnWHuber/status/1252570886240178177

Here's the NPR podcast talking about their story: npr.org/2020/04/20/839…

Reminder: In the Dr. Blasey Ford allegations against Judge K, there was:

—No confirmed date
—No confirmed location
—Zero corroboration (in fact, refutation as to specific facts)
—Admitted political motive
—No police report

Didn't matter, "Believe all women", Justice K's guilty!

Oh, and Ford didn't tell anyone at the time of the alleged incident against Kavanaugh. Not her family, not a close family friend, not the police, nobody. Zero. Nothing. Until decades later.

And there was no evidence she knew Kavanaugh, or ever met him & nobody would confirm this

And Ford's was the "best" allegation against Kavanaugh - the other crazy stories that were obviously made up about quaalude rape gangs, attacks on Yachts and in cars, attacking ex girlfriends in broad daylight etc all still got major media play, mostly assumed likely true as well

Okay back to Reade/Biden and NPR. First, NPR deserves credit for describing the allegation accurately, with audio from Tara Reade herself (rough transcript)

NPR also point out that Reade told 3 people AT THE TIME the alleged incident with Biden happened

Her mother, brother, and a friend

Her mother has since passed away, but BOTH her friend and brother corroborate almost all of Reade's account

(Note the subtle attempt to spin it)

Okay so, so far, we've got

—A "woman" making an allegation on the record
—2 people corroborating it at the time, and today
—An approximate date - spring 1993
—Confirmation she knew Biden
—Rough location - basement of Senate Office building
—Supporting details - e.g. the gym bag

Now that doesn't mean Reade's allegation is true. It needs properly investigating.

But you'll search in vain for the words "credibly accused" from NPR.

But by the standards of Kavanaugh's treatment, isn't this allegation more credible than ANY made against him already?

This allegation can't be allowed to appear credible, so NPR then starts to re-frame the story. Here's how.

Biden gets away with saying nothing on the record:

"Joe Biden himself has not responded to the story"

His deputy campaign manager speaks for him: "It is untrue. It absolutely did not happen" then "pointing out" that Biden authored the landmark violence against women Act"

Imagine Justice Kavanaugh hardly ever being asked about the Ford allegations, and then when he was, responding via a campaign aide.

Oh and as for #BelieveAllWomen, not so much:

"Biden believes women have a right to be heard respectfully, but that such claims should also be diligently reviewed by the press"
— Biden's Deputy Campaign Manager, quoted by NPR

So we're suddenly back to due process, women's claims should be "heard" (not just automatically *believed*) and properly reviewed and investigated before people don't get a job, get fired or jailed?

What happened? Did a Democrat get accused or something?

Reade gets hit by NPR for not filing a police report at the time:

"Reade did not go to the police at the time, and there's no contemporaneous notes or documentation of the alleged incident that had been found"

Reade HAS now filed a police reporting naming Joe Biden in D.C. NPR actually *confirm* this from "a law enforcement source". You'd think that would be a big story, but NPR only mention it in passing.

(Dr. Blasey Ford never filed a police report, and still hasn't).

"We did obtain confirmation of that police report, a record of which names Biden from a law enforcement source. But you know, look, even after reporting this story and talking to so many people, there are still just some unknowns about the entire episode"

NPR throw shade on the fact that people not related to Reade don't confirm the allegation:

"[I] spoke to multiple people from this time period and nobody could confirm Reade's account"

Here's what is framed as an emphatic denial from a "longtime aide" of Joe Biden:

"If a conversation had occurred, I would remember it. It's something that would be so out of character with what was how you would describe Joe Biden"

(Was qaalude gang rape "out of character"?) 🤔

Other Biden staffers throw shade:

"the reason that they have trouble believing this story is because what Reade's describing is so counter to the culture in the office, the culture that they get experienced. You know, they point out that Biden had women in senior positions"

Reminder that Justice Kavanaugh had the strongest record on the judicial circuit of employing women and had promoted the most clerks onto senior roles in history. Now he's on SCOTUS, he's got the most female clerks ever. But nobody in the media, least of all NPR, cares about that

!!"Some of Reades's details have been inconsistent, and her story has changed over time" - NPR

Not as much as EVERY SINGLE ALLEGATION against Justice K. 🤦‍♂️

"Biden supporters... point to this outspoken support that she's made of Bernie Sanders"

"They also point to these effusive online posts that she had written in the past praising the Russian leader Vladimir Putin"

Oh no, SANDERS AND PUTIN!

"More than a dozen women have publicly accused President Trump of various incidences of sexual assault"

How many of them have at least two people corroborating it, a date, location, and confirmed interaction between Trump and the person involved? HINT: it's not more than a dozen

Reade "wonders why essentially, any of that matters when you're talking about an allegation of sexual assault?"

Oh Tara, did you not notice the (D) against Joe's name?

The NPR story ends with

"It's hard to know if this is an issue that's really going to have an impact on voters... Biden's not doing town hall meetings. He's not being confronted by it"

And he won't be, and everyone knows why, including the media.

/ENDS