If you post something like this

it kinda makes a bad look if you start changing your story after the accused actually starts following through. Kinda makes it look like they called your bluff and that you're making these statements in bad faith.

I said I believed most of Tara Reade's claim, and I do still think that *something* happened between her and Biden, but holy shit is this a textbook definition of "how not to handle a sexual assault allegation against a prominent politician". Shifting goalposts when the accused pulls receipts, corroborating people who give multiple different stories, journalists inappropriately acting as advocates and coaching witnesses, and then going on bizarre political rants on social media that make it extremely easy for people to dismiss you as a bad faith actor.

If Tara Reade is telling the truth, then holy shit she made some bad decisions about how to tell her story.

Joe Biden pulled receipts and now Tara Reade is moving the goalposts.... again.

@Sevenizz:"She had no witnesses, proof, knowledge of dates/place/time"

Funny, Reade doesn't have any of that either. Also LOL Google didn't remove the CNN interview from the database. That was conspiracy bullshit that got refuted within hours of the claim being made.

The supporting corroborating individuals have their own problems, i.e. being coached directly by the journalist speaking with them, and/or changing their story before/after being contacted by Reade

Reade has no corroboration from a neutral third party

More to the point though, if Tara Reade is completely telling the truth, painting her accusation as completely brazen, obviously politically motivated is really not a smart move.

Oh look, one of the only people who came forward to corroborate Reade's account is now second guessing themselves


Say what you want about Christine Blasey Ford. Her story was much more consistent and didn't have anything like the weaknesses and baggage that Tara Reade's story does.


Also, lets be honest with ourselves here, if Tara Reade ever actually filed a formal complaint like this, do you honestly think that Obama wouldn't have found out in '08, or that no Republicans would have found out in the 12 years since then?

Biden just pulled receipts. Interesting to see where this goes.

@Xabiss

The nieghbor only corroborated the account after being directly contacted by Reade

Tara Reade isn't Christine Blasey Ford. That doesn't make Reade a liar, but also no, they are not equivalent. It is absolutely possible to take one more seriously than the other an not be hypocritical about it.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/04/29/joe-biden-sexual-assault-allegation-tara-reade-column/3046962001/

Also FWIW Ford testified under penalty of perjury. Reade gave her account to a weird underground podcast. That doesn't automatically make her wrong, but it also doesn't make Ford's accusation and Reade's accusation equally credible. As it stands now Reade's accusation has been poisoned by mismanagement of the story by the journalists handling it, and now places like PBS/NPR will probably never run a real story about it again.

I believed Tara Reade, and I still do believe that *something* bad and inappropriate happened between her and Biden, but the complete mishandling of the story by journalists who are supporting her, and some of Reade's own actions have me really seriously questioning how much benefit of the doubt I should give her.

Lets just say that she's not in the same position as Christine Blasey Ford.

With all that being said, no I don't think Tara Reade is completely lying. My pet theory is that most of her account is true, Biden grabbed her and kissed her without her consent, and then she actually did have a falling out with Biden's team as a result of this, in no small part due to the Biden team not handling this situation appropriately.

Afterwards, one of these things may have happened.
1. It was a traumatic event to Reade and her regularly relived the event over and over again, which frequently happens with traumatic events [especially sexual ones]. Unfortunately, the more someone remembers something, the more corrupted and degraded that memory becomes [I'm not making this up https://www.themarysue.com/memory-distortion-in-brain/] and now Reade remembers the even as being something different, and worse, than what actually happened, or

2. She's simply been manipulated into telling a really over the top version of the story, in pretty stark contradiction to what she said last year about what Biden did to her.

I'm only doubting these things because the more lurid details of this accusation [specifically the digital penetration] is completely out of line and out of character of all of the other observations and accusations against Biden. Is Biden an old creep who has serious boundary issues with women? Yes. There are multiple accounts and recorded observations of this. Is he a sexual predator who fingerblasts women out of nowhere?.... that one's a little less likely.

Guys I don't think the "Beijing Biden" angle is working.