- Click to share on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
- Click to share on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
- Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in a new window)
- Click to email a friend (Opens in a new window)
Editor's Note: Rocío Vélez is a lawyer with more than 15 years of experience in international marketing, business development and an advocate for environmental issues. Republican strategist. Graduated from the Pontifical University of Puerto Rico with a postgraduate degree in History and Political Sciences from Point Park University in Pittsburgh.
(CNN Spanish) - The New York Times published an article just for Easter Sunday, reporting the allegations of a former employee of the then senator and now virtual Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden.
Tara Reade, who worked for nearly a year in Senator Biden's office, alleges that he sexually assaulted her. Many outlets highlighted that Reade had already come out with the news last year saying that Biden had touched her shoulders and neck, making her feel uncomfortable.
It was not until last week when the former vice president spoke about the issue in an interview and was blunt in stating: "That never happened."
The real dilemma that this accusation has caused is the weight that falls on the Me Too movement. When Dr. Blassey Ford's remarks against then-US Supreme Court justice candidate Brett Kavanaugh came out, the media coverage and the Me Too movement's attack on the magistrate were overwhelming. The harsh criticism of the Me Too movement and of renowned feminists and advocacy bodies for women continues.
And is that, regardless of political affiliation, the main objective of many of these movements is that victims speak and not live in silence, and even more so in the case of powerful and public figures. The aim is to set an example in all sectors of society that when a victim of aggression makes a complaint against his aggressor public, he will be heard.
Similar cases of prominent entertainment figures with different nuances have been presented, showing that the value of a victim in recounting her anguish and experience, added to various fronts of organizations that support the cause and to an equitable justice system, provide the hope that old paradigms and social stigmas can be broken.
Unfortunately, there has been very little media coverage, until recently, of this Tara Reade complaint and the fact that the virtual candidate for the presidency by the Democratic Party had not been asked if he had any reaction to this complaint. to this movement Me Too and its leaders exposed. It should be noted, however, that in a recent column, CNN reporter Chris Cillizza highlights the opportunity that Biden missed in one of his most recent virtual conversations, where Hillary Clinton was present, having been able to give his answer to Tara Reade's allegations.
Cillizza also points out that the clamor for Biden to answer these questions head-on did not diminish, but on the contrary only increased and even more, when he himself established that on November 3 voters must select a candidate with morality. In a recent development reported by CNN correspondent MJ Lee, the story of Lynda LaCasse, a neighbor of Tara Reade, offers additional details that seem to corroborate Reade's complaint. LaCasse provides details of what Reade shared with her at the time of the alleged sexual assault.
What is inconceivable is that the few who were asked at the time if they had any reaction have been so "politically correct", are its former, Senator Bernie Sanders who said "It is relevant to talk about everything, if a woman feels that she has been attacked, she has every right in the world to stand up and make her claim ”, while senator Amy Klobuchar said; "All women in these cases have the right to be heard and to have their cases reviewed carefully" or the representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The latter stated that every woman deserves to tell her story and that it is valid to inquire about the merits of the accusation. In an interview, Ocasio stated "if we want to maintain integrity, we cannot say: we believe in every woman, as long as it is not inconvenient."
In 2016, several women made similar accusations against then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Several of them, counting in great detail the unwanted and sexual advances that, they claimed, had been made by the now President of the United States. At that time and - even recently - the reports of those events continue that, because it is Donald Trump, the media cover in great detail.
The reality is that the double stick when covering two public figures that will be measured in all probability in the next elections may be the subject of controversy and many columns, but I want to focus on how disappointing it is for voters to have only these two public figures as an option in November for the nation's president. Let's keep in mind that, even with the countless accusations and the audio in which Donald Trump was heard speaking disparagingly of women, he was elected 45th president of this country.
On the other hand, we now have a former vice president who is facing not only similar allegations, but potential conflicts of interest for his son Hunter Biden's business in Ukraine and China when Joe Biden was vice president.
What is clear is that the political bases take their claws out of candidates plagued by defects only for preserving power, and choosing the one that in their ideologies is the least bad.
After having had six women aspiring to the candidacy of the Democratic Party and at times when women have been world leaders in the midst of this pandemic that is plaguing us, we will have to settle - if anything - with a potential vice-presidential candidate for the Party Democrat. It will be interesting to know what position this possible candidate will have in the face of the accusations against her partner in the ballot and in the face of the inequality that women still experience in the United States.
Joe Biden
