The #MeToo movement advocates for survivors of sexual harassment or assault to speak out about their experiences in order to expose violators and combat sexual misconduct, yet, the main stream media and even staunch supporters of #MeToo and #TimesUp largely ignored Tara Reade’s allegations against former Vice President Joe Biden for weeks. What happened to #BelieveWomen? Politics by omission? Shouldn’t the same voices who claimed outrage about Brett Kavanaugh (where there was almost no corroboration) be screaming #BelieveWomen  from the rooftops about Joe Biden? 

Biden is known as a supporter of women, as  principal champion for the 1994 Violence Against Women’s Act, and his efforts to change the culture of violence against women on college campuses by  relaxing the standards of evidence  during the Obama administration.  Commenting on the “he-said, she-said” accusations against Brett Kavanaugh, Biden himself said: “For a woman to come forward in the glaring lights of focus, nationally,” he told reporters,  “you’ve got to start off with the presumption that at least the essence of what she’s talking about is real, whether or not she forgets facts, whether or not it’s been made worse or better over time.”#BelieveWomen

Should his standard regarding  #BelieveWomen  not apply to the accusations of Reade against Biden himself? Just because Biden is the only candidate to potentially beat Donald Trump, does not mean Tara Reade’s claim should be ignored. Tara Reade deserves a fair listen. We don’t know yet if Reade is telling the truth or not, and to this day, we don’t know if Christina Blasey Ford was telling the truth.

Simply to  #BelieveWomen  as Biden said and as touted by many prominent women during the Kavanaugh hearings 'no matter what' and 'without due process and the presumption of innocence' should not be the standard. We must all agree that there should be a fair and balanced process of discovering the truth with diligent and honest investigation. At the very least, we should start with Biden’s own standard—“the presumption that at least the essence of what she’s talking about is real” and not simply give Biden a pass because he is the only remaining Democratic candidate for President to run against Trump. 

It appears, politics may be at play. 

We acknowledge that reporting on Covid19 is front and center with respect to the daily news, but seriously, how is Tara Reade’s allegation not relevant to the upcoming election? Where has the main stream media been on this story? It has been almost  three weeks  and only now, after more corroborating evidence is surfacing, are major media outlets feeling the pressure to address the allegation. 

The  Washington Post  finally covered the story this week headlining “Trump allies highlight new claims  regarding the allegations against Biden” …. “Apparent corroboration surfaced this week  for elements of two accusations made by Biden’s [accuser]…,” as if using these descriptions might render the corroborations suspect. These corroborations are real and are forcing major media outlets to finally pay attention.

As of this date,  we know about two anonymous friends, a former co-worker, Reade’s brother, and now a life long Democrat neighbor, Lynda LaCasse, who have corroborated Reade’s accounts told to them by Reade within a few years of the alleged assault. We have seen  a video from August 11, 1993’s “Larry King Live’  which was discovered by  The Intercept    this past Friday, allegedly featuring Reade’s mother calling in and alluding to her daughter’s sexual assault claims against Biden. In her call, she references her daughter as a staffer working for a prominent senator and how her daughter’s only option seemed to be to go to the press, but out of respect for the senator  she decided not to do so.  CNN’s own investigative reporters  failed to check  it’s own archives for this video and did not even mention the discovery during  CNN's Friday night prime time lineup. Interesting given the many stories and segments  CNN  featured about the allegations against Kavanaugh, which in many minds  were not compelling  since Dr. Blasey Ford was not able to recall many of the details involving her assault, including the date, the location, or the other people present (except for one person who could not recall being in the same house at the time). 

Media bias?  None of CNN, ABC, or NBC, has asked Biden to comment, despite multiple appearances. Why? Targeting Biden for sexual harassment would likely hurt his campaign for presidency.

According to  reports,  Tara Reade claims that when she was a staffer for then-Senator Joe Biden in 1993, he pinned her to a wall likely in the basement of a Capitol Hill office building, groped her and put his hand under her skirt and penetrated her with his fingers. She does not recall the exact day, time or specific location of the assault.

In fairness to Biden, these claims differ from what  she reported last year, when seven other women reported inappropriate behavior by Biden at the time—that he “rubbed her shoulders and neck” and “played with her hair”.  According to a friend, Reade was worried about disclosing the assault, for fear of retaliation and backlash. Despite claims by Reade that she raised Biden’s inappropriate conduct (except the assault) with some of her supervisors at the time,  none of them recalled  having these discussions with Reade in recent interviews. Reade says she even filed a report with the Senate personnel office (in which she may have excluded the assault), which she believes are stored at the University of Delaware, which records were to be released publicly, but have now been resealed. Reade claims, soon after making her initial complaints, she was asked to look for another job. 

After much pressure from Biden’s supporters, Biden appeared on MSNBC's Morning Joe Friday morning in an interview with Mika Brzezinski. After being asked to clarify for the American people whether he had sexually assaulted Tara Reade, Biden responded: “No. It is not true. I am saying unequivocally, it never, never happened and it didn’t. It never happened.” When asked wether he remembers Tara Reade, Biden replies: “I don’t remember any complaint having ever been made. It was 27 years ago.” When pressed by Mika about his own standard for believing women ‘why were the claims real for Dr. Ford and not for Reade’ Biden insists that Reade has a right to be heard and her claims should be vigorously vetted. “In the end, the truth is what matters and in this case, the truth is that the claims are false. The truth will come out and then they can be believed. He insists that they are not true. At one point he says “they are not corrobor…” but then stops himself. 

We applaud Mika. She asks Biden some very tough questions and pushes for clarification when Biden seems invasive or unclear. Mika presses him multiple times about a complaint that Reade says she filed with the Senate office and believes are among Biden’s Senate records held by the University of Delaware. Apparently, those records were to be made public but now have been resealed to be held until Biden leaves public office. Biden believes her complaint, if filed, would be with the ‘personnel files’ in the National Archives and has authorized the Secretary of the Senate to release those records. (Those records are not with the Archives and would have remained with the Senate, according to  recent inquiries from the WSJ.) Mika presses, why not conduct a search for Tara Reade’s names in the National Archives and in the records held by the University of Delaware for complete transparency? Biden becomes defensive stating that those record would contain confidential documents, memos of discussions with controversial leaders, and position papers that could be used against him during his campaign—and "no one else had done that!" He does not understand her point, he exclaims. Mika presses, just a search of Tara Reade's name. He get’s testy. “Who does that search?” Finally, he tries to shut Mika down. If a report was filed, it was filed with Senate office. "Period!" he says. 

Regardless of your political persuasion, we should take Reade’s accusations seriously, encourage and conduct thorough due diligence, ethically and with honesty and integrity, hear from the accused on the matter, report the facts on a fair, balanced and bipartisan basis, and then allow the public to decide who to believe. #MeToo and #TimesUp are milestone movements that are critical to  promoting a cultural change for respect in the workplace    and beyond, for a  culture free of sexual harassment and violence. Dismissing Reade’s allegation for political purposes without proper vetting will damage these very important causes going forward. Many argue enough damage was done to these movements during the Kavanaugh hearings.

It should not matter that Biden supports women’s causes, or is a good guy—many claim the same is true for Brett Kavanaugh. It does not matter that as of this time, there is only one allegation against Biden as opposed to the 20 plus we know of against Trump.  This is about #MeToo and the importance of listening and evaluating a serious allegation that deserves to be heard and vetted vigorously.  This should not be about politics. 

Until Reade is properly and fairly heard and we can determine based on all of the facts whether or not she is believable, premature acquittal of Biden and disrespectful treatment of Tara Reade, especially by key and high profile women (including potential Vice Presidential candidates) who were outraged by the allegations against Kavanaugh emphatically insisting on #BelieveWomen  without insisting on  due process and the presumption of innocence—are disappointing, appear self-serving politically and are hypocritical.  They are damaging the very importance and meaning of the #MeToo movement and the victims this movement was intended to support. Tara Reade deserves their apology.

Ruth Marcus from The Washington Post said it best: “Outrage over misbehavior only by those with whom we have ideological differences is not righteous — it is hypocritical. Skepticism about accusations only when they are made against someone with whom we are ideologically aligned is not high-minded — it is intellectually dishonest.”

Let’s encourage a fair and balanced investigation for all alleged victims of sexual assault and their alleged violators. 

Together we can #changetheculture to a more healthy and prosperous environment, free from #abuse. #TimesUp. Let’s #playnice at work and stop #workplacesexualharassment. For more on this topic and for other exercise examples, please check out our new book  “Play Nice - Playground Rules for Respect in the Workplace,”  and join us at the  www.thesandboxseries.com.