Conservatives and liberals found rare common ground Saturday, blasting the Democratic Party and the media for glaring #MeToo hypocrisy amid a decades-old sex assault accusation against presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

The squabble comes as Democrats desperately try to unite the party against President Trump less than a week after Sen. Bernie Sanders dropped out of the presidential contest.

The New York Times released a long article Saturday about Tara Reade, a former Biden staffer who says the then-senator sexually assaulted her in 1993. The article — released a week after Biden had already secured the nomination — even gave readers a handy summation.

“The Times found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Biden,” it stated.

Critics ticked off a long list of issues with the story Saturday, but the most damning might have come from the paper itself.

An early-morning version tweeted out by the New York Times read: “The Times found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Biden beyond the hugs, kisses and touching that women previously said made them uncomfortable.”

That sentence was quietly edited and the tweet deleted hours later.

“Amazing retroactive whitewashing after they published their own story,” tweeted Glenn Greenwald, co-founder of the progressive online news site The Intercept.

Other complaints suggested mainstream news outlets like CNN and The Washington Post ignored the story altogether until Biden was secure as the presumptive nominee.

“Only after the final democratic rival @berniesanders withdraws from the race does the @nytimes publish this story @joebiden. Because, of course,” tweeted journalist David Schuster.

Republicans — still fuming about Christine Blasey Ford’s sexual assault charges against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh — also jumped on the story.

“The @nytimes shows up way late…and according to #MeToo she must be believed and @JoeBiden must not be believed,” wrote Trump supporter and intelligence officer Tony Shaffer.

The accusation has even sparked division among prominent #MeToo surrogates.

Actress Rose McGowan declared Biden-supporter Alyssa Milano a fraud after the Charmed actor seemed to dismiss Biden’s accuser.

“You are a fraud. This is about holding the media accountable. You go after Trump & Kavanaugh saying Believe Victims, you are a lie” tweeted McGowan on April 6.

Milano, who flew to Blasey Ford’s side in solidarity during her senate testimony, failed to see the hypocrisy.

“I believe that even though we should believe women, and that is an important thing, what that statement really means is that for so long, the go-to has been not to believe them,” Milano explained. “We have to societally change that mindset to believing women, but that does not mean at the expense of not giving men their due process…”

The explanation rang false for many.

“The DNC is in on the smear job of Tara Reade, so are you. SHAME,” McGowan tweeted.

___

(c)2020 the Boston Herald

Visit the Boston Herald at www.bostonherald.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

—-

This content is published through a licensing agreement with Acquire Media using its NewsEdge technology.

Rating: 4.6/5. From 11 votes.
Please wait...