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Analysis: The Left's Stunningly Hypocritical Talking Points on the Biden Allegation

Guy Benson
Guy Benson  |  May 04, 2020 1:05 PM

With the controversy over sexual assault allegations against Joe Biden now fully out in the open, many on the Left are circling the wagons to protect the presumptive 2020 Democratic nominee -- totally and shamelessly abandoning their previous standards over such allegations. I've written and said that Biden deserves the presumption of innocence. Tara Reade has some significant contemporaneous evidence boosting the credibility of her claims, but there are also some inconsistencies and red flags that cast doubt on the situation.

As members of the political media, Democratic politicians and lefty activists rediscover the value of evidence, skepticism and fairness, they'd enhance their own credibility by apologizing en masse to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, against whom they abandoned many of the standards they're suddenly embracing again, out of political necessity. Kavanaugh had far less evidence against him than Biden has, so their mental gymnastics and intellectual contortions have been a sight to behold. I've been following the spin rather closely.  Here are some useful responses...

(1) On the "but Biden was vetted" talking point:


(2) On the inconsistencies in Reade's story:


(3) On the "this is Hillary's emails redux" talking point, which the DNC chair has latched onto:

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(4) On the "conservative smear campaign" talking point:


(5) On the "insufficient evidence" talking point:


(6) On the truly wild "there is no double standard" talking point:


And here's a fun coda to Powers' ridiculous assertion (content warning):


Her explanation, if one can call it that, is here. Feeling regret over the tone of past tweets is one thing, but it's not a great look to simultaneously argue that a clear double standard is a figment of your opponents' imagination while deleting your own contributions to that very double standard. In case you missed it, you'd need a heart of stone not to laugh at The New York Times editorial board's suggestion that the Democratic Party investigate the Biden accusation, rather than the press (the Times ran hundreds of stories on Kavanaugh) or other authorities. Byron York calls the editorial "truly beyond parody." Be sure to read Andrew Sullivan discussing how Joe Biden's politically-motivated hostility toward the rights of the accused is coming back to bite him, as well as this line from Maureen Dowd's latest column -- which is far more intellectually honest than the risible drivel from the editorial board:


I'll leave you with this, from a woman who betrayed Ronan Farrow's confidence on behalf of her client...Harvey Weinstein:


Sure, Handsy Joe did it, but we must stop Trump.