Headline RoundupMay 21st, 2020

Perspectives: The Tara Reade Allegation and 'Believe All Women'

Sexual Misconduct, Joe Biden, Tara Reade, Sexual Assault, Elections

Summary from the AllSides News Team

Tara Reade's allegation that presumptive 2020 Democratic nominee Joe Biden (D-DE) sexually assaulted her when she was a Senate staffer in 1993 has roiled the #MeToo movement, and specifically its standard of "believing all women" who've come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct. Many right-rated voices are critiquing "believe all women" after some of its proponents recanted on the word "all" in the wake of Reade's allegation; some called out self-described feminists as hypocrites for purportedly changing their stance on sexual assault allegations to support a political agenda. Left-rated voices have generally been more skeptical of Reade's allegation, pointing to apparent inconsistencies in her story, while conversely focusing more on the 25 women who've accused President Donald Trump of sexual misconduct.

Featured Coverage of this Story

From the Left

‘Believe All Women’ Is a Right-Wing Trap

New York Times (Opinion)

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New York Times (Opinion)

Opinion

Joe Biden has been accused of sexual assault, and conservatives are having a field day, exultant that they’ve caught feminists in a new hypocrisy trap. A woman, with no corroboration beyond contemporaneous accounts, charges a powerful man with a decades-old crime? Hmm, doesn’t that sound mighty close to Christine Blasey Ford’s complaint against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh? Yet this time, many liberals who’ve championed the #MeToo movement seem skeptical?

Gotcha!

Tim Graham, executive editor of NewsBusters: “Where is the #MeToo movement on this story? What happened to their rigid...

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From the Left

'Believe all women'? Now that Reade has accused Joe Biden of sexual assault, never mind.

USA TODAY

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Opinion

In early October 2018, amidst the hysteria surrounding the confirmation hearing of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, I wrote an opinion piece for USA TODAY questioning the wisdom of the “believe all women” rhetoric that many cited in condemning Justice Kavanaugh, without any critical analysis of the allegation against him.

Less than two years later, the biggest proponents of this movement at the time of the Kavanaugh hearing seem to be backtracking on its logic.

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From the Right

Feminists Who Now Claim They Never Meant 'Believe All Women' Are Gaslighting Us

Reason

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Reason

Opinion

The emergence of Tara Reade's accusation of sexual assault against presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden has prompted the swift and sudden collapse of the #MeToo movement's central tenet—that all women who come forward with such allegations deserve to be believed.

In fact, some who speak for the movement aren't merely retreating on this point: They are pretending that feminists who wielded the #MeToo hashtag never claimed that all women should be believed. This is a transparent attempt to rewrite history and should be treated as such.

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