Nancy Pelosi endorsed Joe Biden for president on Monday.
Pelosi released a video making her endorsement official — and totally ignoring a sexual assault allegation against the former vice president, Fox News reported. Her formal commitment of support came as two more witnesses provided contemporaneous accounts of Tara Reade’s claim that Biden assaulted her in the 1990s.
Pelosi cites Biden’s “values and integrity”
The Democratic Party has dutifully lined up behind Biden, in spite of his obvious struggles with completing sentences and a sexual assault allegation that has continued to develop. On Monday, Pelosi shared a video praising Biden’s personal qualities and his policy record, attesting to his “values and integrity.”
“I am proud to endorse Joe Biden for president of the United States because he will be an extraordinary president,” Pelosi said in the video. “He knows how to get the job done.”
Pelosi has often portrayed herself as a champion for women, particularly those who have survived sexual assaults. Like many in her party, though, she has turned a blind eye to a politically inconvenient scandal involving Biden, one that calls into question not merely Biden’s “values and integrity,” but also those of her party for choosing to suppress it.
Reade claims that Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993 when she was working as a Senate aide for a short period. Accoridng to Business Insider, the story has been corroborated by her brother and a friend, and it received shocking new corroboration on Friday when video surfaced of a woman — who Reade attests is her late mother — calling in to the Larry King Live program to ask for help with “problems” that her daughter was having with a powerful senator, The Intercept reported.
Pelosi’s endorsement came the same day that two more individuals corroborated the story to Business Insider. A former neighbor of Reade’s, who is a Biden supporter and says she plans to vote for Biden, said she nevertheless felt compelled to share that she remembers Reade telling her about the assault in the mid-1990s. A former colleague of Reade’s at a California official’s office said that Reade told her about suffering retaliation from a former employer over a sexual harassment complaint.
Dems hypocritically back candidacy
Pelosi’s endorsement follows that of former President Barack Obama, who released a video praising Biden earlier this month, as well as that of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who dropped out of the primary race earlier this month. Indeed, Biden appears to be enjoying the backing of just about the entire party establishment — and virtually all corporate, liberal media, making for quite the display of political expediency.
The stark contrast between the liberal establishment’s skeptical treatment of Reade’s story and its breathless promotion in 2018 of claims against then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is staggering. While the media and powerful Democrats piled on Kavanaugh without a moment’s hesitation, they have responded to Reade with uncomfortable silence — making it clear that they see Reade as a liability, not someone with a potentially serious and credible story to share.
The Washington Post was lampooned for a headline on Monday which read, “Developments in allegations against Biden amplify efforts to question his behavior,” a bit of word salad that critics interpreted as a baroque attempt to accuse conservatives of “pouncing” on the scandal. The revised headline isn’t much better: “Trump allies highlight new claims regarding allegations against Biden.”
The controversy has opened up a real divide on the left, with some cynically backing Biden and others calling for Biden to drop out of the running. While some progressive activists have condemned the Democratic Party’s actions, various women said to be on Biden’s short-list for VP, including Sens. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), as well as Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), have said little about the allegation, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Pelosi referred Fox News to comments she made earlier this month indicating that she is “satisfied” with Biden’s denials. For his part, Biden has not addressed the claim directly, though his campaign issued a denial in late March, according to Fox News.
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