Denied sexual misconduct claims against Joe Biden have splintered the Democrats, just as the party had started bridging divides exposed by a long, competitive primary.
After hiding behind campaign spokespeople, Biden, the presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, last week bowed to mounting pressure and publicly and directly rebutted allegations made by Tara Reade, 56, against him.
But Biden’s vehement denial has failed to quiet discontent expressed by more liberal Democrats, particularly those once in Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’s camp, who don’t want a candidate marred with accusations similar to those leveled at President Trump last cycle.
Peter Daou, a veteran of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 and 2016 White House bids before joining Sanders’s 2020 team, has repeatedly reminded Democrats the primary isn’t over, given Biden, 77, has yet to clinch the 1,991 delegates needed to become the party’s next standard-bearer outright.
“THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY IS NOT OVER,” he tweeted. “Millions of voters have not yet been heard. Those who already voted did not know the details of the NINE sexual assault and/or harassment allegations against #Biden. Any former candidate can restart their campaign and the people can speak.”
THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY IS NOT OVER.
Millions of voters have not yet been heard.
Those who already voted did not know the details of the NINE sexual assault and/or harassment allegations against #Biden.
Any former candidate can restart their campaign and the people can speak.
— Peter Daou (@peterdaou) May 3, 2020
New York Times opinion writer Elizabeth Bruenig distilled the argument in a piece called “Democrats, It’s Time To Consider a Plan B,” which earned her both praise and rebukes online, including criticism from Neera Tanden, president of the left-wing Center for American Progress and a longtime Clinton confidante.
“For Democrats who worry that this situation is a means by which the hard left can relitigate a primary in which their preferred candidate lost, and thereby supplant the will of the voters, a Bruenig column like this is not going to be reassuring,” Tanden wrote.
For Democrats who worry that this situation is a means by which the hard left can relitigate a primary in which their preferred candidate lost, and thereby supplant the will of the voters, a Bruenig column like this is not going to be reassuring. https://t.co/iCVgwtNMLl
— Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) May 4, 2020
Comments such as Tanden’s have, in turn, drawn their own condemnations as Democrats try to unite ahead of November’s general election in order to turn out a winning coalition of voters.
“It’s interesting to me that leftist, who’ve been consistent in their opinions abt #metoo, are the ones being painted as politically self interested— even when we specifically say Bernie shouldn’t automatically replace Biden,” tweeted Briahna Joy Gray, Sanders’s ex-national press secretary.
It’s interesting to me that leftist, who’ve been consistent in their opinions abt #metoo, are the ones being painted as politically self interested— even when we specifically say Bernie shouldn’t automatically replace Biden.
Meanwhile, ghoulishly flip flopping on rape is ??
— Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) May 4, 2020
Despite their contender’s own murky record with women, the Trump campaign and some Republican strategists have sought to capitalize on the Democrats’ predicament, in which Biden supporters are in an awkward position of defending a woman’s right to be heard while standing up for the man they hope to replace the White House incumbent in the fall fight against the GOP.
Meanwhile, Republicans have seized on an apparent Democratic double standard being applied to Reade compared to the one the party used for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s accusers during his 2018 Senate confirmation process.
Biden has 1,431 delegates, meaning he’s shy of the total required to be named the nominee in the first ballot during the Democratic National Convention, scheduled for mid-August in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Facing insurmountable math before Reade’s claims attracted widespread attention, Sanders had aimed to rack up enough delegates to assert influence on the convention’s rules and the party’s policy platform. Other hopefuls would also fall short of the majority threshold since there are only 1,400 delegates still to be decided. Instead, operatives like Daou have daydreamed about Biden withdrawing from the race.
Middlebury College political science professor Bert Johnson predicted Democrats would come together eventually, regardless of Reade’s allegations, but noted, “It’s a long way until November.”
“I’d say that the severity of the conflict among Democrats depends on how Biden’s response last week is received and whether any new information emerges that raises further questions about his conduct,” Johnson told the Washington Examiner.
Biden has a history of leaving women feeling uncomfortable after his interactions with them. Last week, however, he denied accusations of a more serious nature — that he forcibly kissed Reade and penetrated her with his fingers, as well as inappropriately touched her hair and neck, when she worked for him in the Senate in 1993.
Reade, who has changed her story since going public about her exchanges with Biden, claims she lodged a sexual harassment complaint against Biden at the time but never received a copy of it. The two are trying to find the document, if it does exist, but it’s unclear where it could be held. The secretary of the Senate said Monday that even if it were in her collection, she legally wouldn’t be able to release it. Reade has faced scrutiny too for speaking often with reporters from the Intercept, an anti-establishment news website.
