The Biden campaign, which is under mounting pressure after a woman claimed Joe Biden sexually assaulted her in the early 1990s, announced Thursday that former Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd will assist in the effort to evaluate potential female running mates.
Yes, that Chris Dodd. As in, the other half of the late Ted Kennedy’s infamous “waitress sandwich.”
Biden’s Vice Presidential Selection Committee will also include Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, and former White House counsel to the presumptive 2020 Democratic nominee Cynthia C. Hogan.
“Selecting a vice presidential candidate is one of the most important decisions in a presidential campaign, and no one knows this more than Joe Biden,” Biden for President campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement made available to the Washington Examiner.
She added, “These four co-chairs reflect the strength and diversity of our party and will provide tremendous insight and expertise to what will be a rigorous selection and vetting process. We are grateful for their service to the campaign and for their leadership.”
Biden himself said on March 15 that he would pick a woman to be his running mate. The Vice Presidential Selection Committee co-chairs, including Dodd, will “conduct conversations” with potential candidates to provide the Democratic candidate “with the background and information he needs to make his decision,” the campaign explained.
Speaking of chairs, here is a deeply unpleasant allegation from 1985 involving Dodd, Kennedy, a young waitress, and lots of alcohol (via GQ):
“As Gaviglio enters the room, the six-foot-two, 225-plus-pound Kennedy grabs the five-foot-three, 103-pound waitress and throws her on the table. She lands on her back, scattering crystal, plates and cutlery and the lit candles. Several glasses and a crystal candlestick are broken. Kennedy then picks her up from the table and throws her on Dodd, who is sprawled in a chair. With Gaviglio on Dodd’s lap, Kennedy jumps on top and begins rubbing his genital area against hers, supporting his weight on the arms of the chair. As he is doing this, Loh enters the room. She and Gaviglio both scream, drawing one or two dishwashers. Startled, Kennedy leaps up. He laughs. Bruised, shaken and angry over what she considered a sexual assault, Gaviglio runs from the room. Kennedy, Dodd and their dates leave shortly thereafter, following a friendly argument between the senators over the check.
“Eyewitness Betty Loh told me that Kennedy had ‘three or four’ cocktails in his first half hour at the restaurant and wine with dinner. When she walked into the room after Gaviglio had gone in, she says, ‘What I saw was Senator Kennedy on top of Carla, who was on top of Senator Dodd’s lap, and the tablecloth was sort of slid off the table ’cause the table was knocked over—not completely, but just on Senator Dodd’s lap a little bit, and of course the glasses and the candlesticks were totally spilled and everything. And right when I walked in, Senator [Kennedy] jumped off … and he leaped up, composed himself and got up. And Carla jumped up and ran out of the room.’
“According to Loh, Kennedy ‘was sort of leaning’ on Gaviglio, ‘not really straddling but sort of off-balance so it was like he might have accidentally fallen. … He was partially on and off … pushing himself off her to get up.’ Dodd, she adds, ‘said, “It’s not my fault.”‘ Kennedy said something similar and added, jokingly, ‘Makes you wonder about the leaders of this country.'”
More recently, Tara Reade claimed she was sexually assaulted by Biden in 1993, back when she worked for him as a Senate aide. Though there are a few red flags and inconsistencies in her story, Reade has the benefit of multiple witnesses who have provided contemporaneous corroboration. The Biden campaign’s strongest defense so far has been to assert quite simply that Reade’s version of events “did not happen.” The Democratic candidate himself has yet to be asked a single question about the allegation, according to a Washington Free Beacon review of 19 media interviews and more than 140 questions. Yet despite the kid-glove treatment that Biden has enjoyed so far from fellow Democrats and members of the press, there is still growing discomfort on the Left regarding Reade’s allegations, as some women’s rights advocates say the former vice president must address the matter on the record.
All of this is to say: For a presumptive nominee who now faces a serious charge of sexual misconduct, you would think that the Biden campaign would be a bit more careful about associating with alleged abusers. But you would be wrong. Then again, it should not come as that big of a surprise that the Biden campaign would ask Dodd for help shopping for female vice presidential candidates. After all, Biden and Dodd go back a long way. In fact, their friendship is noted specifically in the campaign’s announcement of its picks for Vice Presidential Selection Committee co-chairs.
“Senator Dodd is no stranger to the importance of the upcoming election,” the Biden campaign explained, “having both served as the General Chairman of the Democratic National Committee during the reelection of Bill Clinton, and having coauthored landmark election reform legislation after the controversial 2000 election.”
Ah, yes. Bill Clinton. There is another name that a Democratic candidate who is trying to tiptoe around accusations of sexual misconduct should want to mention.
Biden is really hitting it out of the park on this one, trying to bat down an allegation of sexual assault all while surrounding himself with men whose mistreatment of women is the stuff of legends.
