WATCH: ‘Morning Mika’ Feeds ‘Sleepy Joe’ To The Wood Chipper Over Tara Reade’s Sexual Assault Claim
Uh-oh, Joe! This wasn’t the easy-peasy softball interview that many were expecting from MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski!
When it was announced yesterday that Joe Biden was going to do an exclusive interview with MSNBC’s Morning Joe duo to address the Tara Reade sexual assault accusation, many thought that it was going to be a Joe Biden lovefest and a quick sweeping under the rug.
Trump War Room tweeted clips of Mika Brzezinski saying how much she loves Joe.
“Personally, we love" Joe Biden, said @JoeNBC.
“Love him!” @morningmika interjected. “He’s not a predator.”
It’s obvious why these two have been tasked with cleaning up Biden’s #MeToo moment (again). pic.twitter.com/Bxart1L3cp
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) May 1, 2020
No one really thought that the MSNBC interview would be holding his feet to the fire with regard to his past statements on the “Believe All Women” standard.
Back in September 2018, during the Kavanaugh confirmation, Joe Biden was asked about the accusation against Brett Kavanaugh by Christine Blasey Ford and he hearkened back to the Clarence Thomas confirmation. Biden was the Chair of the Judiciary Committee at the time, and since then, he has said that he believed Anita Hill’s complaints against Thomas. He then said that if a woman comes forward, you should believe that the “essence” of what she says is true.
Speaking generally, Biden added, “For a woman to come forward in the glaring lights of focus, nationally, 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. But nobody fails to understand that this is like jumping into a cauldron.”
Source: Washington POst
Biden called Blasey Ford’s testimony as “courageous” and that she should be “given the benefit of the doubt.” He also said that an FBI investigation was appropriate for Blasey Ford’s accusations against Kavanaugh, but not for Reade’s accusation against him.
He’s kept that standard for some time. When the MeToo movement first began, he said that women should be believed.
Joe Biden in January 2018: "Women should be believed" #MeToo pic.twitter.com/9OP8xVdFbg
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) May 1, 2020
With that backdrop, Mika shocked many with an interview that hearkened back to what the media is supposed to do–hold a politician accountable for their words. She absolutely grilled him over the double standard he has for himself and others as well as his lack of transparency.
It sure as heck wasn’t a walk in the park for Joe!
From the get-go, Mika gave the very graphic description of the accusation made by Reade and asked directly if Joe Biden sexually assaulted her as she claimed.
Brzezinski then asked if Joe remembered Reade or any complaint that was made by her.
Joe said, “It was 27 years ago” as though that means it’s irrelevant. That wasn’t his standard when Christine Blasey Ford accused Brett Kavanaugh of an attempted groping in 1981–that was 37 years after the alleged incident, and he still said that Blasey Ford was credible.
Mika noted that Tara Reade is coming forward on Sunday to make her story public–in the “glaring light” of the national media–and according to his standard, that means that the “essence” of her story must be real.
It only got tougher from there as she asked about sealed documents and why he won’t release them.
The most shocking moment was when Mika asked, “Are women to be believed unless it pertains to you?”
Biden says that he never said that a woman should be believed without having a proper investigation into her claims.
Remember, it was the Obama Administration with Joe Biden as Veep that put in the Title IX Rules on college campuses that effectively eliminated the due process rights of the accused. How convenient that he’s suddenly rediscovering due process now that he’s in the crosshairs. Tell it to the young men in colleges that faced expulsion and lost their scholarships and had their entire lives derailed because of Title IX.
Watch the shocking Random Act of Journalism by an MSNBC host:
To Biden, this interview must have seemed like a “high tech lynching.”
Mika didn’t mention the people that Tara spoke to that have come forward corroborating her account because she told them about it at the time. She didn’t mention the Larry King Live clip of a woman that Tara Reade says is her mother calling in about what an aide can do if their complaint against a Senator is ignored. So, she missed some things. But this was a much harder-hitting interview than many had anticipated.
The partisan press has been strangely quiet until recently on the pretense of “investigating” Reade’s claim. This same journalistic courtesy was not afforded to Brett Kavanaugh as increasingly ridiculous claims were made about him when he was in high school and college and they were all headline stories and fodder for “Belive All Woman” think pieces.
This makes it look like Biden is willing to have the Media(D) fight his battles for him and not address the issue himself. Increasingly, it looks like some in the Media(D) aren’t willing to back Joe up on this. CNN’s Editor-at-Large wrote a scathing piece that the Biden camp is “twisting” a New York Times article to defend against the Reade claim.
…The New York Times’ piece that Abrams referenced with Lemon on Tuesday night — and which the Biden campaign talking points lean heavily on — does not, in fact, find that Reade’s accusation is either “not credible” (Abrams’ words) or that “this incident did not happen” (Biden talking points).
Source: CNN
Look at that! Another Random Act of Journalism!
Perhaps the worst moment in the interview was when Brzezinski asked what Biden would say to Reade if he had the opportunity. He disregarded the question and instead continued with his denial of the incident.
BRZEZINSKI: If you could speak directly to Tara Reade about her claims or anything, what would you say?
BIDEN: I would—this never, ever happened. I don’t know what is motivating her. I don’t know what is behind any of it, but it is irrelevant. It never happened. It never happened, period. I’m not going to start questioning her motive. I’m not going to get into that. I’m not going to start. I’m not going to go after Tara Reade for saying these things. It’s simple. What are the facts? Do any of the things she said, do they add up? It never happened.
This was Biden’s shot at asking a question or giving a statement to his accuser and he let the opportunity pass. This looks horrendous for a man that is just coming forward after this accusation has been floating around for weeks. It makes him look like he’s more comfortable speaking about Reade rather than actually facing her and her accusation. I’m no political spin doctor, but that seems to be some really bad optics.
If this interview was any indicator, then it looks like Joe is going to get a bumpy ride during this campaign!
