The Democratic National Committee slammed the New York Times editorial board for demanding it to investigate allegations of sexual assault against presidential candidate Joe Biden.
A Democratic spokeswoman shot down a call from the newspaper to investigate claims of sexual assault against Biden, asserting such a task was already done by former President Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008.
“This is an absurd suggestion on its face. Regardless of whether it’s the job of DNC to do this kind of thing, it’s already been done,” said Xochitl Hinojosa, a DNC spokeswoman. “Joe Biden has been clear in responding to this allegation, he went through a thorough vetting process to be Obama’s Vice President in 2008 (which is a vetting process like no other) and lawyers and the press found nothing, and he has asked for transparency by requesting that all relevant documents be released if they exist. ”
DNC response to @nytimes ed board calling on them to establish a panel to look through Biden’s UDelaware records, via spox @XochitlHinojosa (h/t @rickklein) pic.twitter.com/MmkBDJx0oL
— Johnny Verhovek (@JTHVerhovek) May 2, 2020
On Friday, the New York Times editorial board called for the Democratic organization to “investigate the matter swiftly and thoroughly,” asserting that looking into the case is an imperative before the general election in November.
“As is so often the case in such situations, it is all but impossible to be certain of the truth. But the stakes are too high to let the matter fester — or leave it to be investigated by and adjudicated in the media. Mr. Biden is seeking the nation’s highest office,” the editorial reads.
According to Tara Reade, a former Biden staffer, the then-Delaware senator forced himself upon her in the spring of 1993, kissing her and penetrating her with his fingers without her consent. Biden, along with his three office staffers, personally denied the claim on MSNBC’s Morning Joe while speaking with host Mika Brzezinski.
The paper’s editorial board demanded that the former vice president permit a search into the University of Delaware’s archival records of Biden’s past, which is currently under seal. However, the university promised to maintain its seal of the documents until Biden “retires from public life” or two years after Dec. 31, 2019, whichever date comes later.
“While understandable, this concern is not prohibitive — and Mr. Biden’s word is insufficient to dispel the cloud. Any inventory should be strictly limited to information about Ms. Reade and conducted by an unbiased, apolitical panel, put together by the D.N.C. and chosen to foster as much trust in its findings as possible,” the editorial board wrote. “But the question at hand is no less than Mr. Biden’s fitness for the presidency. No relevant memo should be left unexamined.”
