Hours after Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski grilled presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden over sexual assault allegations against him, political correspondent Mike Memoli appeared on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports to suggest that the coronavirus pandemic was the reason that much of the media were slow to cover the scandal.
“I think it’s important to lay out the timeline here. Because this story has really been developing slowly but steadily over the past month against the backdrop, of course, of this global health crisis that has been dominating everyone’s attention,” Memoli reminded. He explained: “So it begins in March with the very personal but a very politically charged allegation from Tara Reade, of course, who had worked in Joe Biden’s office in the early ’90s.”
Memoli touted how the network took direction from the Democratic candidate: “Now the Biden campaign quickly denied that allegation but also said that reporters should be challenging and vetting this claim....And we here at NBC News were among those who did so....We produced that initial report on April 12th.”
What the reporter forgot to mention was that report was exclusively relegated to NBCNews.com, it was never aired on NBC or MSNBC.
CNN similarly attempted to rewrite history, on Friday, when correspondent Dana Bash claimed “the media has been reporting on this extensively.”
Memoli went on to laughably assure viewers that his liberal media colleagues like Andrea Mitchell surely would have pressed Biden on the allegations if not for the pandemic:
Now it’s important to note as well, Andrea, if we were on the campaign trail, I think you would be among the first on the rope line weeks ago trying to ask the Vice President about this. But, of course, he’s here in Delaware and hasn’t been able to address this. He’s been doing a number of interviews but the subject had not come up until today.
Talking to Democratic strategist Jennifer Palmieri minutes later, Mitchell falsely claimed that there were few chances for Biden to be asked about the scandal before today: “And, Jen, there were, I believe, two major national interviews that Joe Biden did since this first arose and then a number of local interviews, local television interviews in the last two weeks where no one asked about it.”
In reality, a Media Research Center study found that Biden participated in a total of nine “major national interviews” since Reade publicly made her accusation on March 25. Three of those discussions occurred on MSNBC, while one occurred on NBC’s 3rd Hour Today show and another on NBC’s Meet the Press. All of the interviews featured a combined total of 77 questions, not one of which was about Reade.
The lame attempt by the media to excuse their incredible lateness to such a major story is just another blow to their already dwindling credibility.
Here is a transcript of the May 1 segment:
12:23 PM ET
(...)
ANDREA MITCHELL: And one note here, NBC News has been talking to Tara Reade for the last few weeks, has reached out to her and asked her to respond, to come on camera and to respond to now what Joe Biden has said. We have not yet heard back, hope we do.
Joining me now, Jennifer Palmieri, former communications director for the Obama White House and Clinton 2016 campaign. And NBC News correspondent Mike Memoli, who covers the Biden campaign and has been working for several weeks on this story as well. Mike, let’s talk about what we know. And first of all, what Joe Biden answered and what he didn’t, if you think there’s anything he did not address today.
MIKE MEMOLI: Well, Andrea, I think it’s important to lay out the timeline here. Because this story has really been developing slowly but steadily over the past month against the backdrop, of course, of this global health crisis that has been dominating everyone’s attention.
So it begins in March with the very personal but a very politically charged allegation from Tara Reade, of course, who had worked in Joe Biden’s office in the early ’90s. Now, a year ago she had come forward, along with other women, to say that Joe Biden had made physical contact in a way that made her feel uncomfortable. But in late March, she did an interview, at first, with a podcaster talking about what she said was an allegation of a sexual assault.
Now the Biden campaign quickly denied that allegation but also said that reporters should be challenging and vetting this claim, that women have a right to be heard and that those facts should be vetted thoroughly. And we here at NBC News were among those who did so, with great credit to Ali Vitali, we spoke to Tara and also to some of those she said would corroborate her allegation. We produced that initial report on April 12th. And at the time what we were reporting was that three of the five people she said she shared this account with, of varying details, did not recall those conversations. Separately we also talked to a friend and another – a former Senate staffer who did say that there was some discussion with Tara about an allegation of either harassment or assault.
But, again, very clearly, this became a political story, as more and more Democrats were being asked about this, including a number of the women who are being considered for vice president.
Now it's important to note as well, Andrea, if we were on the campaign trail, I think you would be among the first on the rope line weeks ago trying to ask the Vice President about this. But, of course, he’s here in Delaware and hasn’t been able to address this. He’s been doing a number of interviews but the subject had not come up until today.
(...)
12:30 PM
MITCHELL: And, Jen, there were, I believe, two major national interviews that Joe Biden did since this first arose and then a number of local interviews, local television interviews in the last two weeks where no one asked about it. So no one has asked him about this in a national interview until today. And Mika Brzezinski, you know, she went after the issue and the questions over and over for 20 minutes.
JEN PALMIERI: Yeah.
MITCHELL: Do you think against that, and against the fact that the President of the United States, whom he’s presumably going to be running against, has at least 12 credible assault allegations that he has denied, but that this is being flogged really continuously by the Trump campaign, by his – by Don Jr. How does this become a campaign issue, briefly if you can?
PALMIERI: Yeah, so Biden has handled it the way you’re supposed to, which is, he’s spoken to it directly and he – there is a record that you can go and check and he said that that record should be checked and he has said you should release all of that, right? That is what you want someone to do. Donald Trump has done none of that except to say that all of it is – nothing ever said bad against him is true. And so I’m sure the Trump campaign will try to use – you know, they’ve already – Don Jr.’s already started to use this. But Biden – Biden needs to give his supporters the assurance, and Americans are open to voting for him, that he’s dealt with this. And you know, I think he did really well today. They’re not going to get over this story in one day, but I believe they're on the path to doing that.
(...)
