Journalists have been derelict in their duty of investigating last March's bombshell sexual assault claims against Joe Biden, providing cover for the Democratic presidential candidate. So you may be surprised to know that 60 Minutes on Sunday spent 12 minutes and 56 seconds investigating Tara Reade and talking to a witness who corroborates her story. Except... it was 60 Minutes Australia. NOT the CBS program that airs in America and might be helpful in educating voters a month before the election.
Instead, American 60 Minutes on Sunday devoted 13 minutes and 15 seconds to comedian Jerry Seinfeld and his new book. So they obviously wouldn’t have time for Reade, right? On the other side of the world, Australian reporter Alexis Daish talked to Reade on the subject of a slanted, biased media: “Unlike Trump’s accusers, Tara has received a barrage of scrutiny. Do you feel as though if Joe Biden wasn’t Joe Biden, your allegations would be taken more seriously?”
Reade called out the press: “Absolutely. If he was a Republican. I think the fact that he’s an elite Democrat put him in this untouchable position and the media was biased and people were biased about it.”
As I wrote in a NewsBusters study in April, the networks buried Reade’s sexual assault allegation for a month.
Since March 25, those networks either completely ignored or barely mentioned the scandal, even after Reade's story was significantly bolstered Friday after the Media Research Center unearthed and posted an August 1993 video clip of Reade's mother calling CNN about her daughter's problem with a "prominent senator."
...
It's not as if they haven't had time to promote Joe Biden's presidential campaign: During this time, ABC, NBC, CNN and MSNBC all invited Biden on their airwaves for interviews, but they refused to confront him even once about these allegations. Out of 77 questions, not a single one asked the former Senator and Vice President about Reade's charges.
Then, most of these same outlets went right back to ignoring Reade right after Biden’s belated denial. In an interview with me in August, Reade demanded that journalists press vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris about the claims:
Journalists should be asking her pointedly why there was a smear campaign on me and why Kamala was so aggressive and assertive with [then-Supreme Court nominee Brett] Kavanaugh and here she knows there is a credible sexual assault accusation against Senator Biden.
60 Minutes Australia interviewed Reade’s neighbor who corroborated her accusations:
LYNDA LACASSE: She basically said that he had put her up against a wall. He had put his hands up her skirt and he put his fingers inside her.
DAISH: What did you say?
LACASSE: I said “I think you should file a police report.” She was upset. She was crying.
DAISH: No, I didn’t. What prompted you to come forward and publicly corroborate her story?LACASSE: I felt that I needed to tell the truth.
DAISH: Did Tara ask you to come forward?
LACASSE: I volunteered.
The American 60 Minutes devoted 25 minutes to adult film star Stormy Daniels and her claims of an affair with Trump back on March 25, 2018. But apparently they can’t be bothered to investigate sexual assault claims against Biden.
Believe all women... unless they’re accusing a powerful Democrat who could be president.
A partial transcript of 60 Minutes Australia is below.
60 Minutes Australia
10/4/2020ALEXIS DAISH: You saw him up close as a politician
TARA READE: Correct.
DAISH: What type of political operator is he?
READE: The kind where smiles, it’s like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Right?
...DAISH: But what Tara Reade claims happened 27 years ago in an open corridor of the Senate is much worse.
READE: We were alone in this corridor and he said my name and then the next thing I knew, he pushed me up against the wall. He kind of pushed, moved his body towards me and then he used his knee to separate my legs. He said — he said, “I want to fuck you.” And he was whispering in my ear and he was kissing me and I was trying to get away from him. And then when I pulled away — [Starts to cry.]
DAISH: You all right?
READE: He had taken his hands and put them down my skirt and taken one hand and penetrated me with his fingers. And when I pulled away, he pulled back and he looked at me almost annoyed. And he said, “Come on, man. I heard you liked me.” And that’s when I could see that he was angry and he put his finger towards my face. And he said, “You know, you’re nothing to me. You’re nothing.”
DAISH: In Tara’s word, it was a Senator’s word against a first year assistant. So she kept quiet, only breaking down to her mother on the phone.
...
DAISH: It would be two long years, in 1995 before Tara told anybody else about the alleged assault, confiding in her neighbor, Lynda LaCasse.
LYNDA LACASSE: She basically said that he had put her up against a wall. He had put his hands up her skirt and he put his fingers inside her.
DAISH: What did you say?
LACASSE: I said “I think you should file a police report.” She was upset. She was crying.
DAISH: No, I didn’t. What prompted you to come forward and publicly corroborate her story?LACASSE: I felt that I needed to tell the truth.
DAISH: Did Tara ask you to come forward?
LACASSE: I volunteered.
...
DAISH: Joe Biden has repeatedly said this never happened.
READE: I think deep down he knows. I don’t know what his capacity is right now. It’s not very clear. But I know he knows. He knows.
DAISH: What do you say to people who say they don’t believe you?
READE: That’s okay. You don’t have to believe me. I’m the one who has to live with it.
DAISH: It seems there was very little for you to gain in coming foward.
READE: There was nothing to gain. And in my case, I lost everything. I lost work. Legitimacy. I lost my reputation. I lost friendships. I lost my housing. Money. Everything.
...
DAISH: It’s an allegation that has received little coverage this election. And unlike Trump’s accusers, Tara has received a barrage of scrutiny. Do you feel as though if Joe Biden wasn’t Joe Biden, your allegations would be taken more seriously?
READE: Absolutely. If he was a Republican. I think the fact that he’s an elite Democrat put him in this untouchable position and the media was biased and people were biased about it.
...DAISH: It’s quite the predicament. Another term of Trump... or an alternative some say isn’t worthy of the task.
