Speaker Nancy Pelosi, fresh off her endorsement of Joe Biden (big surprise there), said on Tuesday that she is satisfied with his response to allegations of sexual assault by former Senate staffer Tara Reade.
In an at-times halting statement made during an interview with CNN, Pelosi first establishes her bona fides as a “big strong supporter of the MeToo movement,” then attempts to square the circle by acknowledging her continuing support for Biden, adding he’s “a person of great values” and “integrity.”
.@SpeakerPelosi defends @JoeBiden on sexual assault allegations: “He’s a person of great values, integrity, authenticity, imagination … He understands the kitchen table issues of America’s working families, his father lost his job when he was a boy …" pic.twitter.com/kZNfgQoxkd
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) April 30, 2020
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
Just one problem. As host Alisyn Camerota notes, Biden hasn’t yet made a statement about the allegations. As the New York Times reports this morning in a piece titled “Democratic frustration mounts as Biden remains silent on sexual assault allegation”:
[S]everal … women’s groups prepared a public letter that praised Mr. Biden’s work as an “outspoken champion for survivors of sexual violence” but also pushed him to address the allegation from Tara Reade, a former aide who worked in Mr. Biden’s Senate office in the early 1990s.
Then Mr. Biden’s team heard about the advocates’ effort. According to people involved in the discussions, the group put the letter on hold as it began pressuring Biden advisers to push the candidate to make a statement himself before the end of April, which is Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
One might ask how Pelosi can with a straight face argue that Biden is a person of “great values” and “integrity” when the former vice president hasn’t so much as addressed the allegations, let alone react to them.