In reaction to Joan Walsh’s article in the Nation, “The Troublesome Tara Reade Story“[1], a Naked Capitalism Reader, who was once a prosecutor, wrote this:

I have cancelled my recent subscription to The Nation. Joan Walsh’s misogynist attack on Tara Reade has no place in a “left” publication in the 21st Century. To assert that there is “no evidence” of Ms. Reade’s allegation against Mr. Biden denies Ms. Reade’s agency as a human being and revives Victorian tropes that a man must deposit his “evidence” inside a woman‘s body — the property of another man — before a sexual assault can have taken place. Even that monster Donald Trump’s assertion that “they’ll let you grab them by the pussy” presumes female agency and consent. I have been a lawyer for over 35 years. A woman’s words alone constitute “evidence.” Walsh then drags out the trope that a woman sharing more detail over time is “changing” her story. Ms. Reade’s reluctance to share details is understandable in light of how people like Mr. Biden himself publicly treated Anita Hill, and the recent public abuse of Christine Blasley Ford. Until Super Tuesday many, myself included, believed that Mr. Biden’s candidacy was going down in flames. Why drag oneself and one’s family through the mud? Walsh then resorts to the tired “Putin!” meme. Russiagate was an abject failure politically. Mccarthyism also failed 65 years before Russiagate and has no place in contemporary political discourse. I refuse to support a publication that publishes this sort of scurrilous nonsense. [A Naked Capitalism Reader]

The Naked Capitalism reader amplifies in correspondence:

One other point: Walsh’s central construction “no evidence that he did; no evidence that he did not,” is false. Tara Reade’s statement is direct evidence that he did. A hearsay denial by factotum and proxy who claim no personal knowledge of the incident is not evidence. Thus, there is no evidence that he did not. Let Biden come forward and personally articulate his denial. Until he does this, Walsh is engaging in a complete fallacy.

And further amplifies:

Katie Halper did a really good job interviewing Tara Reade. Tara comes off as rather guileless, which causes the arc of her choices about to whom and when to make her disclosures ring absolutely true to me as a former prosecutor who has reviewed literally dozens, if not scores, of allegations of sexual assault…. It’s interesting to me how the social standing of the perpetrator and politics warp people’s “woke-ness.” One of my more controversial trials was of a Palo Alto gang rape of an intoxicated teen that became the cover story of the San Jose Mercury News Sunday magazine back in 2000. I also had quite a bit of insider knowledge of the notorious Stanford swimmer case which was prosecuted by my office not long before I retired at the end of 2016. There was quite an interesting spectrum of opinion in “liberal” Palo Alto/Stanford about both of those cases — which became far more controversial than they should have been in a “woke” culture.

Yep. Thanks to our Naked Capitalism Reader for this commentary.

NOTES

[1] See Ryan Grim, The Intercept, “Time’s Up Said It Could Not Fund A #Metoo Allegation Against Joe Biden, Citing Its Nonprofit Status and His Presidential Run“, The Katie Halper Show, “I wanted to be a senator; I didn’t want to sleep with one“, Current Affairs, “Tara Reade Tells Her Story,” and Current Affairs, “Evaluating Tara Reade’s Allegation Against Joe Biden.”