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Why didn’t Reade’s allegations come out during Biden’s VP vetting?
This isn’t the airtight defense many seem to think it is
Allies of Joe Biden are finding it increasingly hard to ignore the allegations of sexual assault brought by former staffer Tara Reade. Though the story was at first covered almost exclusively alternative media sympathetic to Biden’s primary opponent Bernie Sanders, it’s now gaining traction in the mainstream press — and turning into prime fodder for his Republican opponents.
The initial response by both the campaign and liberal pundits was to dismiss Reade’s accusations as some sort of Kremlin-backed fabrication intended to derail the presidential bid of the presumptive Democratic nominee, but with reporters turning up new evidence to corroborate Reade’s account, this position is becoming less tenable by the day.
This past week brought a palpable shift in the attitudes of some prominent Democrats, and the clearest weathervane is Alyssa Milano. A major figure in the #MeToo movement, the actress has been one of Biden’s most vocal defenders throughout this whole controversy. A couple of weeks ago she had said Reade’s allegations were “clearly a smear campaign.”
But on Monday, she tweeted out that Reade deserved “the space to be heard:”
