Tara Reade's Big Dreams

 

And her misguided effort to save America

This is an article I wasn’t expecting to write. I wrote an article concerning the competing allegations of sexual harassment and assault against Donald Trump and Joe Biden. I anticipated including Tara Reade’s claim of assault against Biden in that story. Problems with Reade’s story were already known so I expected to conclude that the allegation was inconclusive. However the more I read, the more I realized there was too much about Tara Reade to relegate her to a paragraph in a larger article. There’s been some really in depth reporting on Tara Reade’s life. Rather than rehash all the details, I’m going to give an overview then jump straight to the analysis and conclusions. I’ll put the links to the other articles at the end if you want to read more about Tara Reade. Bottom line, there’s little chance that the story she’s now telling is an accurate account of events.

Even though it’s almost certain that Reade isn’t being truthful, I can’t help but identify with her on some level. Looking at the detailed accounts of her life it becomes apparent she’s always strove to be more than what she was. Growing up she wanted to be an actress. That’s common enough. Most people stop with a high school production or community theater. Tara however moved to California to be a star. She never became a star but she did get some work including an uncredited part in the film “La Bamba.”

Eventually, her interest turned to politics and she got an internship with Congressman Leon Panetta that led to her position as an aide in Joe Biden’s office. The position in Senator Biden’s office only lasted about a year. Reade has given a series of explanations for her departure. In 2020 she stated she was fired after being harassed. In 2018 Reade said she left because she didn’t want to be a part of American imperialism. Yet in 2009 she said it was her husband’s job managing a Midwestern Congressman’s campaign that caused her to leave. Her next failed attempt at a career came with her law degree from Seattle University. Accounts from her classmates indicate Reade struggled with the course work but she ultimately graduated. This success was temporary as she failed to pass the bar exam thwarting her legal career.

Over the course of the last fifteen years she’s bounced around from job to job, none lasting very long. She’s had several positions as a victims advocate and working at animal charities or shelters. I think it’s fair to say she’s struggled throughout this period. She had a large student debt she couldn’t pay, she stiffed several landlords for unpaid rent and utilities, and an animal rescue charity she worked for accused her of stealing.

Still the dreams for something better never completely ended. Reade claims she is working on a political romance novel and has worked as an expert witness on domestic violence. This last position has cast doubt on her reliability. It’s been revealed that she never obtained the undergraduate degree required for admittance to law school. Reade is disputing this claim. A name change resulting from a divorce from her abusive ex-husband is to blame for the confusion according to Reade. However, Antioch University continues to state that Reade does not have a degree from their institution. 

With her law degree now in doubt it also appears she exaggerated her role in Biden’s Senate office. Reade used her work as a legislative assistant on Biden’s Violence Against Women Act to show her qualification as an expert witness. The problem is she never had the position of legislation assistant. She may have played some role in the legislation but it seems she overstated her position.

That’s Tara Reade, someone with a lot of ambition and some talent, but not enough to rise above mediocrity. The first time she gets any real attention beyond her immediate circle is in April 2019 when Reade gives a series of interviews accusing her former boss Joe Biden of sexual harassment. Tara is one of eight women who came forward with similar accusations that Biden was overly affectionate to the point of making them uncomfortable. There are two parts of her accusation. First is that he put his hand on her shoulder and touched her hair for an uncomfortable amount of time. This jives with the other allegations against Biden. 

Second, Reade says she was told “Joe likes your legs” and was asked to serve drinks at an event. She refused this request which led to her firing, Reade claims. No other woman has made a similar claim and there are no witnesses that can confirm this story. As a result it is difficult to judge the validity of this part of her accusation. Overall it’s entirely believable that she felt harassed by Joe. Several independent sources have surfaced supporting this conclusion. Tara’s mother called into Larry King Live and stated her daughter had issues with a prominent Senator but didn’t elaborate. There’s also a court record in which her ex-husband states she was harassed by someone in Biden’s office.

The problem with Reade’s allegation began in March of this year when she came forward with a new version of her story. In her new version of events Reade claims Biden assaulted her. She describes being told to take Biden’s gym bag to the Senator. After giving him the bag in a corridor of the Congressional office building she describes Biden forcing her up against a wall in one fluid movement. Reade says, “I was up against the wall. And he — I remember the coldness of the wall. And I remember his hands underneath my blouse and underneath my skirt, and his fingers penetrating me as he was trying to kiss me and I was pulling away.”

There are a number of problems with this claim. First, the assault she describes seems pretty implausible. In one movement he had one hand under her blouse and the other under her skirt around her underwear and up inside her while also attempting to kiss her before she could push him away. All this happened in an open area, just seems unlikely. It’s not unusual for an assault victim to wait years before telling their story. However, just last year she gave multiple extended interviews in which she made it a point to say this was not a story of sexual misconduct.

When reporters have looked for corroboration of her story they’ve come up short. She’s claimed that she complained to people in Biden’s office but none from senior staff to interns recall her having any complaints about Joe. Reade has stated she filed a formal complaint, but no record of this exists. She has since clarified that the report concerned retaliation from office staff rather than anything Biden did. Interviews with people she claims to have told about the assault in the past have been unconvincing as well. Two witnesses that previously said that Biden was only guilty of harassment have changed their story to match Reade’s. Reade has also produced a new witness that she didn’t mention last year that confirms Reade’s new account.

Adding suspicion about her new claim is Reade’s attempt to change the narrative about her original story. The original claims of harassment were made in an essay on Medium. The day before she went public with her new allegation of sexual assault she went back and modified her original essay. She added several new bits of text that hint it was more than just harassment. This materially changed the original essay which clearly said, “this is not a story about sexual misconduct.” She also changed it to say she was fired rather than she resigned from her position in Biden’s senate office. Reade also made other changes to make the original accusations seem more serious. This was all done without changing the date of the article or making a notation that she had made edits. Anyone who went to her 2019 essay would believe they were reading her original allegation instead of one edited to support the new claim of assault.

There are a lot of little things in her accounts that have made journalists scratch their heads. Generally assault victims are reluctant to tell their stories which is understandable. Yet beginning last year Reade became seemingly eager to talk and gave multiple extended interviews. At times she even pitted reporters against each other to see who could get her story published first. Several news outlets doubted her original accusation enough they declined to run her story despite publishing other accusations against Biden. It’s also a puzzler to explain why she occasionally tweeted or retweeted support for Biden up through 2017. On March 12th 2017 Reade Tweeted, “My old boss speaks truth. Listen,” when sharing a BBC article on Biden. She frequently showed support for Biden’s record on women’s rights and people who knew her said she spoke positively about him.

So what is her motivation for coming out against Biden now? Looking at her tweets and other writings it becomes apparent that between late 2017 and early 2018 there was a shift in her political thinking. This is possibly related to developments in the Mueller investigation. During this time period there’s a distinct change in how she writes about Russia and President Putin. After initially being critical of Russian interference in the election Reade begins viewing America’s foreign policy as being imperialistic. 

Her souring views towards Joe Biden seem to parallel her warming feelings towards Russia. Reade wrote of Putin’s genius, his reverence for women and his emotional intelligence in an article titled Why a Liberal Democrat Supports Vladimir Putin, in November of 2018. The following March Reade wrote that she liked Russia, Putin and wanted America to leave Russia alone. She went on to write, “America is hiding its rhetoric about “the spread of democracy” behind the real desire for these fossil fuel rights or other economic benefits.”

As the 2020 Presidential race heated up Reade began making her left-wing political views apparent on Twitter. In January of 2020 she tweeted that she’s a Democrat who’s left of Bernie Sanders. Reade expressed support for the Presidential campaigns for Marianne Williams, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. She also became increasingly hostile towards Joe Biden’s campaign but only in part because of her past with him. Reade frequently tweeted that 61 billionaires supported Biden and that he was part of a corrupt system. As the primaries narrowed the field, Reade fell squarely behind Bernie Sanders tweeting support for him many times a day.

There was a distinct new urgency to Reade’s tweets as it became apparent Biden was likely to win the remaining primaries. On March 15th she tweeted that Biden “sexually harassed me and worse,” suggesting that she had additional allegations. Two days later she wrote, “[Biden] is trying to be our President . . . Not if I have a single breath left.” For the next week Reade made obscure references that she had more to say but was being silenced. Finally on March 25th the interview she gave making the accusation of sexual assault was released. 

At that point Biden’s nomination looked inevitable even though he still needed over 700 more delegates. A credible allegation of an sexual assault was about the only thing short of a medical emergency that could derail his nomination. The interview Reade gave making this claim was to Katie Halper, a comedian/ podcaster/ radio personality. Reade learned in 2019 that when you contact journalists they don’t immediately run with the story. They interview other witnesses and look for corroborating evidence before going public. Reade didn’t want her story scrutinized. She needed someone with a high enough profile to get attention, but who wouldn’t ask questions before putting the story out there.

With this allegation out in public every Republican activist became an instant expert in the “Me Too” movement. Cries of “what about Bret Kavenaugh” and “what about believe all women” filled conservative news outlets. Of course these same people were strenuously arguing that a single decades old allegation of sexual assault shouldn’t stop Kavenaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court. They were also misrepresenting the ideas behind the “Me Too” movement. The point was never believe all women regardless of the evidence. Rather it was to take all allegations seriously and investigate them even when made against powerful men. That is what has happened with the claims Tara Reade made against Joe Biden.

Nothing in this article is news. Every journalist who has dug into this story has found serious problems with Tara Reade’s account. Is it possible that she’s telling the truth? Yes. It’s possible to piece together a scenario in which she’s telling the truth, but due to circumstances it appears improbable. That’s why I think we should not demonize Tara Reade. We can’t say with certainty what the truth is. Clearly some Biden supporters have attacked her and spread information that wasn’t true or at least wasn’t relevant. However, it is clear the preponderance of the evidence does not support Reade’s accusations.

The most probable scenario is that Tara Reade felt harassed when she worked in his office back in 1993. She’s struggled to find success ever since and likely puts much of the blame for that on Joe Biden. The emergence of the “Me Too” movement empowered her to finally tell her version of what happened back then. Like many in the Bernie Sanders movement she became convinced that Biden represented the status quo and was no better than Trump. Facing the near certainty of Joe Biden’s nomination she came to see herself as Sanders last shot. At first it seemed this effort might be successful. However, under scrutiny the holes in her story became apparent and the whole enterprise came undone.

Tara Reade had big dreams for the future when she went to work for Senator Biden in 1992. After decades of seeing these dreams come to nothing she seized this opportunity to make a difference and resurrect her fortunes. However, this misguided effort was an act of desperation that fails to hold up to scrutiny.

Selected sources and additional reading:

Evidence Casts Doubt on Tara Reade’s Sexual Assault Allegations of Joe Biden (https://medium.com/@eddiekrassenstein/evidence-casts-doubt-on-tara-reades-sexual-assaultallegations-of-joe-biden-e4cb3ee38460)

Examining Tara Reade’s Sexual Assault Allegation Against Joe Biden

(https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/us/politics/joe-biden-tara-reade-sexual-assaultcomplaint.html)

Tara Reade’s Tumultuous Journey to the 2020 Campaign (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/politics/tara-reade-joe-biden.html)

Tara Reade’s Updated Medium Post: All Material Edits (https://romansresearch.wordpress.com/2020/04/29/tara-reades-updated-medium-post-all-materialedits/)

The agonizing story of Tara Reade (https://www.vox.com/2020/5/7/21248713/tara-reade-joe-bidensexual-assault-accusation)

Under oath, Biden accuser Tara Reade cited Biden’s work for women; defense (https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/oath-biden-accuser-tara-reade-cited-bidens-work/story? id=70829512)attorneys now question her other testimony (https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/oath-biden-accuser-tara-reade-cited-bidens-work/story?id=70829512)

Why a Liberal Democrat Supports Vladimir Putin (https://web.archive.org/web/20190404043945/https://medium.com/@shewrites94/why-a-liberaldemocrat-supports-vladimir-putin-f54ca2a3a405)