Carrie Severino on Biden allegations: Democrats won't look into assault claims when it's someone they're politically interested in defending
Top Democrats have remained silent about the recent sexual assault allegations made by former Biden staffer Tara Reade. Carrie Severino, founder of the Judicial Crisis Network, speaks with Fox News about the political hypocrisy.
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What a difference two years makes.
When Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court was pending and sexual assault allegations against him surfaced, Democrats rushed to judgment in the blink of an eye.
Just three days after the Washington Post reported on Christine Blasey Ford’s accusation against Kavanaugh, a group of Senate Democrats — Richard Blumenthal, Mazie Hirono, Kirsten Gillibrand and Patty Murray — held a joint press conference expressing their support for Ford. No matter that little information was known about the alleged assault and that Ford’s account had zero corroboration at the time (in fact, it was never corroborated). Hirono bluntly said that the men in this country needed “to shut up and step up” and “do the right thing for a change.”
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Where is Sen. Hirono now? The pressure is mounting for the Left to take Tara Reade’s accusation against Joe Biden seriously in light of the new corroboration of her account, but Senate Democrats seem to have lost their taste for their former calls to “believe all women” now that the alleged assaulter happens to be the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.
Some Democrats seem to have contracted a sudden case of laryngitis and are saying as little as they can about the matter.
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Sen. Kamala Harris lamented in 2018 that even a re-opened FBI investigation into the Kavanaugh allegation was not “a search for the truth” but an “abdication of responsibility and duty.” As recently as last year, Harris said that she believed numerous women who accused Biden of unwanted touching. Of course, that was when she was running against Biden for the nomination. Now that Harris is on the Biden VP shortlist, it’s nothing but crickets.
In 2018, Sen. Amy Klobuchar said that she Ford “more credible” because Ford “had mentioned [the alleged Kavanaugh assault] before.” Now multiple corroborators have come forward in support of Reade’s allegations against Biden, yet Klobuchar has said nothing. Then again, Klobuchar is also on the Biden shortlist.
These senators who were so vocal during the Kavanaugh confirmation suddenly have a deaf ear now that speaking up could cost them.
The contrast between the Democrats’ outrage in 2018 and their silence in 2020 could not be starker.
An increasing number of Democrats, including Gillibrand and Stacey Abrams, are ready to dispose of the Reade allegations altogether.
Abrams, the former Georgia gubernatorial candidate, said in an interview with CNN that while “women deserve to be seen and…listened to…The New York Times did a deep investigation and they found that the accusation was not credible.” This is a shift from 2018, when Abrams said about Ford, “I believe women, and I believe survivors of violence always deserve to be supported and have their voices heard.” But now that Abrams is on the Biden VP shortlist, she’s moved the due process goal post.
Gillibrand also affirmed her support of Biden, notwithstanding the new corroboration of Reade’s allegation, and notwithstanding years of self-branding as a champion for women. She told reporters that Biden’s devotion of his life to “supporting women” and his “vehement[]” denial of the allegation were enough to convince her.
Even #BelieveWomen champion, Alyssa Milano, discovered the virtues of due process in recent weeks, proclaiming on Twitter: “I believe, along with many others in this space, that accusations need to be investigated with due process for the accused.”
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During the Kavanaugh confirmation circus, Senate Democrats threw due process out the window. People were hounding Kavanaugh’s friends, students, colleagues and classmates trying to dredge up information. No accusation against the nominee — however unsupported or far-fetched — was beyond investigation.
Tara Reade’s accusation is an old one, and we don’t have enough information yet to know what actually happened. But there is infinitely more corroboration of Reade’s account than there was of Ford’s, and Reade has been much more specific about the time frame and location than Ford. Yet Democrats have to be dragged, kicking and screaming, to even acknowledge the allegations against Biden.
While nobody might have guessed it at the time, the Kavanaugh allegation and how it was handled by the Left has turned out to be the perfect foil for the Biden allegation. The contrast between the Democrats’ outrage in 2018 and their silence in 2020 could not be starker.
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Ultimately, this proves that Lindsey Graham was right in 2018. In his memorable remarks before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Graham yelled to his Democratic colleagues: “Boy, you guys want power.” Lindsey Graham was exactly right. The Democrats’ 2018 theatrics weren’t driven by principle or an actual search for the truth but rather political expediency and power.
In 2020 it’s now Joe Biden who is accused. Gone is the Democrats’ outrage. Yet the truth from 2018 remained unchanged: for the Left, it’s all about politics and power.