You may not be able to find CNN uttering a peep about Tara Reade’s accusations against Joe Biden, but never fear. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is ready and willing to step into the breach. During an online chat with a women’s group last night, AOC was asked about the accusations and whether or not Democrats should be dealing with that issue. The woman asking the question is no fan of Donald Trump, but also resents the idea that her only other choice is somebody with “a really long history of being creepy to women.”

The congresswoman didn’t miss a beat before responding, siding with the questioner entirely. She said that the issue is totally legitimate and needs to be confronted, rather than just “silencing” anyone who tries to bring it up. (CBS News)

New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Tuesday night said the Democratic Party should discuss the recent sexual assault allegation against Joe Biden, a charge the presumptive nominee’s campaign has denied. On Tuesday evening in an online conversation with The Wing, a networking and community space for women, a questioner asked Ocasio-Cortez about the accusation recently leveled against Biden by Tara Reade, who worked for him when he was a Delaware senator in the 1990s. The questioner opposes President Trump’s reelection, but also “really resent[s] the fact that the other choice is someone who has a really long history of being creepy to women.” Ocasio-Cortez responded, “What you’re voicing is so legitimate and real. That’s why I find this kind of silencing of all dissent to be a form of gaslighting.”

I don’t know how willing the MSM will be to cover this story, but there was one person who definitely noticed. And that was Tara Reade herself.

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez is literally the first member of Congress to address publicly what happened to me when I worked for Joe Biden. Thank you @AOC https://t.co/TuN43vpQKq — taratweets ( Alexandra Tara Reade) (@ReadeAlexandra) April 15, 2020

Seeing Reade tossing some flowers to Ocasio-Cortez shouldn’t be all that surprising. She’s still a Democrat after all, even if she has a serious complaint against her party’s presumptive nominee. And she likely suspected that AOC would be receptive to the message since the congresswoman is still smarting over Bernie Sanders’ exit from the primary.

For her part, AOC went on at length, talking about how Democrats need to have the integrity to confront #MeToo issues, even when it’s “inconvenient” for them. She added that it’s not right to simply prioritize beating Donald Trump if it comes at the expense of failing to deal with sexual assault issues which are “very legitimate things.”

These are precisely the type of headlines that the DNC is trying desperately to avoid. (And they’re getting a lot of cover from the majority of media outlets thus far.) But to be honest, this sort of conversation is pretty much right on brand for AOC, so she’s at least demonstrating some consistency here. It’s also hard to ignore the possibility that she really doesn’t mind getting in some shots at Joe Biden. I’m not saying that she wants to see Biden damaged to the point where he has to be yanked from the ticket, perhaps opening the door back up for Bernie. But I’m also not saying she’d be terribly upset if things happened to work out that way.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that there’s about to be some sort of sea change among Democrats or the mainstream media outlets who love them. If most of the cable news networks and major newspapers are taking their cues from the New York Times, I find it hard to believe that we’ll be hearing much, if anything about Tara Reade for the remainder of what’s left of the Democrats’ primary or the general election. And even if we do, the mentions will be packed with plenty of caveats questioning the veracity of Reade’s charges.

In the meantime, however, AOC will probably still be out there advocating for Bernie Sanders and acting as a burr under the Democrats’ collective saddle.