Today, August 26, is Women's Equality Day. The Biden administration is sponsoring a 5K run and other events to celebrate "the many benefits of true equality and the role of women in our public life." Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, the administration is abandoning millions of women to face subjugation and torture at the hands of the Taliban.
In the interest of providing crucial context to enhance the general public's understanding of women's issues, the Washington Free Beacon would like to remind our readers that Democrats intentionally destroyed the #MeToo movement in order to elect Joe Biden president, and almost did it again to keep Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D., N.Y.) in office.
In late March 2020, after Biden had effectively locked up the Democratic nomination for president, a former staffer, Tara Reade, accused Biden of sexually assaulting her in 1993. The allegation came less than two years after Christine Blasey Ford accused then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in the early 1980s.
The media covered the allegation against Kavanaugh, a Republican, with an unrelenting intensity. The #MeToo movement was in full swing following the exposure of Harvey Weinstein's history of predatory behavior. Hashtags such as #BelieveWomen informed the media's stunning lack of skepticism regarding Blasey Ford's claims. Kavanaugh was presumed guilty, yet reporters couldn't find any evidence to prove he had ever met the alleged victim.
By almost every measure, Reade's accusation against Biden, a Democrat, was more credible than Blasey Ford's. She worked in his Senate office in 1993 but left shortly after the alleged incident. She told a number of people about the alleged assault, including her mother, who called in to Larry King Live to complain about the "problems" her daughter had while working for a prominent senator. Nevertheless, mainstream reporters and activist groups such as Time's Up were decidedly less inclined to embrace Reade as a victim who was telling the truth.
Time's Up, for example, organized a national walkout "in solidarity with Christine Blasey Ford" in 2018, while promoting hashtags such as #BelieveWomen and #BelieveSurvivors. Its leaders demanded Kavanaugh withdraw his nomination to the Supreme Court. The activist group's response to Reade's allegation was slightly different.
In 2020, Time's Up declined to support Reade, citing its nonprofit status and the fact that Biden was a candidate for federal office. When a coalition of women's rights groups drafted a letter urging Biden to comment publicly on Reade's allegations, Time's Up cofounder and CEO Tina Tchen, a former fundraiser for Barack Obama who also served as Michelle Obama's chief of staff, urged the groups to hold off. When Biden finally addressed the issue on May 1, Tchen praised his transparency on MSNBC and attended a Biden fundraising event that same evening.
The contradiction was glaringly obvious, even at the time. Mainstream media outlets, despite their lack of vigorous reporting on the matter, published opinion columns slamming the Democratic Party for undermining the #MeToo movement:
⋅ 'Believe all women'? Now that Reade has accused Joe Biden of sexual assault, never mind. (USA Today)
⋅ Democrats' downplaying of the Biden allegations will damage #MeToo (The Guardian)
⋅ Are Democrats Canceling #MeToo for Biden? (New York Times)
⋅ Biden should step aside. We can’t sacrifice another woman for political gain. (Washington Post)
Time's Up is finally getting some long overdue criticism after its leaders were exposed for helping Cuomo, a Democrat, craft his response to numerous allegations of sexual harassment. The group's cofounder, Roberta Kaplan, "reluctantly" resigned earlier this month in response to the New York attorney general's report, which found that Kaplan advised Cuomo's office regarding an op-ed intended to undermine the credibility of former staffer Lindsey Boylan, who was the first woman to publicly accuse the governor of sexual harassment. Tchen was also involved in the effort, described in the attorney general's report as an act of "unlawful retaliation."
On Thursday, the Washington Post reported that Time's Up leaders played an even more extensive role in the effort to preserve Cuomo's reputation and save his job. Text messages reveal that Tchen told her Time's Up colleague to "stand down" from a plan to release a statement in support of Boylan. Longtime Cuomo adviser Melissa DeRosa was reportedly in contact with Time's Up members and affiliates as she worked to defend the governor against the allegations. Advocates for sexual abuse survivors were justifiably outraged by the revelations.
Tchen has yet to resign but did apologize for her actions in a statement to the Post. "I deeply regret that survivors, who have already endured a great deal, feel let down and betrayed. That was not my intention," she said.
Happy Women's Equality Day! As you celebrate, keep in mind that the Democratic Party abandoned the #MeToo #BelieveWomen movement as quickly as President Biden abandoned the women of Afghanistan once prominent Democrats were accused of sexual misconduct.