Bret Stephens: Hi, Gail. I was struck by a line in our colleague Maureen Dowd’s Sunday column, about Tara Reade’s allegation that Joe Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993: “Democrats always set standards that come back and bite them,” she wrote. Is it time someone popularized the hashtag #BelieveSomeWomen?
Gail Collins: Bret, it’s sort of a relief to be able to talk about something other than many variations on the theme of coronavirus.
But this definitely isn’t the alternative I’d have chosen. Yikes. Hard to know what to do about claims of sexual assault about a presidential candidate when his opponent is a guy who used to brag about how he had the star power to grab any woman’s private places.
Bret: Team Trump’s approach to politics has never really been about painting the president as a good guy. It’s about painting his opponents as being every bit as bad as he is — and sanctimonious hypocrites to boot. In other words, Trump’s politics aren’t just about division. They’re about diminishment.
So the Reade story, true or not, plays right into Trump’s hands: It undercuts the argument that Biden is the moral, decent choice for president. And it reminds voters that liberal values on matters of sexual behavior have been highly situational depending on the political identities of the accuser and the accused.
Gail: Certainly isn’t helpful. Especially given Biden’s long touchy-feely history. But let’s talk for a second about a key issue — that the Democrats have to accept Reade’s accusations at face value because they’ve argued in the past that in these situations, a woman who claims she’s been sexually assaulted must be believed.
We’ve been through an astonishing 50 years when the country’s gone from a vision of women as protected homemakers to an economy where they go to work alongside men. That took a lot of getting used to — men had to learn there were absolutely no grabbing rights on the job and women had to be ready to stand up and denounce molesters.
The world had been used to ignoring that kind of bad male behavior. So it was critical to make women feel that if they spoke up, they’d be believed. Period.
Now I suspect we’re coming to a new plateau. Women who make sexual assault accusations obviously have to be protected and supported. But their claims have to be treated with both seriousness and objectivity.
Bret: I hope you’re right. Complaints of the sort Reade is making should never be ignored, as they were in the past. But they shouldn’t be unquestioningly accepted, either. Fairness needs to be the rule, as opposed to denial or credulity.
I guess a lot will still depend on what we learn from and about Reade, assuming she eventually sits for a public interview. Even so, it’s an inauspicious start of sorts for Biden’s presidential campaign. Do you think there might be a temptation among Democrats to deny him the nomination and give it to, say, Andrew Cuomo?
Gail: Seems like almost everybody wants Andrew Cuomo to be president except Andrew Cuomo. Although I do suspect if he was offered the job on a silver platter, he’d feel constrained to accept.
Bret: Never quite understood the charms of Albany. Go on ….
Gail: Barring some new whopper of a revelation, the Democrats aren’t going to toss Biden off the ballot because of an accusation about an alleged event in 1993 that he denies. So far, there doesn’t seem to be evidence like a filed complaint. But just shrugging it off is utterly wrong. The Democratic National Committee should do a thorough investigation. The fact that party officials don’t want to is no argument whatsoever against the wisdom of this approach. Although maybe an argument for a better D.N.C.
Bret: Sunshine is the best disinfectant, as someone other than Trump once said. And Biden didn’t help himself in his interview with Mika Brzezinski on MSNBC, when he refused to authorize a search of his papers at the University of Delaware for any information there might be about Reade. I accept the likelihood that there might be nothing there at all, but it was politically tone deaf not to authorize the search and suggested he might be wary of something else in his long Senate career coming to light.
Other than a smart veep pick, what do you think Biden should be doing to help his campaign, down there in Basement HQ?
Gail: First priority is keeping the guy in good health through the election. No crowds, no handshakes. Really, if they had to put him in a safe deposit box that’d be fine.
And then there’s the vice-presidential matter …
Bret: Definitely in favor of Operation Keep Joe Alive. And I remain unwavering in my belief that Amy Klobuchar would bring the most to the ticket, politically, intellectually and geographically.
Gail: Well my favorite would be Elizabeth Warren, but I admit that in a perfect world, someone on the Democratic ticket should be under 70. There are some less well-known names popping up, like the governors of Michigan and New Mexico. If all else fails, I guess Klobuchar’s OK with me.
Bret: Glad you think so. But I also think Biden needs to articulate some kind of idea about his prospective presidency that is larger than, “I’m not insane, I’ve been around, and Barack Obama likes me.” We are moving into a dark world of recurring outbreaks of disease and deepening depression. We may not have a vaccine for years. Thirty million-plus Americans have just lost their jobs. We are going to be more insecure, at home and abroad, than at any time in decades. Millions of businesses, particularly small ones, may go bust. Authoritarian regimes, particularly China, may be strengthened by the pandemic because they are less scrupulous about protecting the lives and health of their citizens. People are going to be tempted, even more than they were before Covid-19, by all kinds of populist or authoritarian political programs. We’ll have more to fear than fear itself.
In other words, I don’t think Biden can win by selling himself as the second coming of George H.W. Bush when what we really need is closer to the F.D.R. mold. Not that I’m in favor of another New Deal, but we probably need a New Think.
Gail: Couldn’t agree more, and a few months down the line I’m sure you’ll forgive me when I mention “closer to the F.D.R. mold” again.
Bret: Give it a few years and we’ll probably need a W.P.A.-type government program for unemployed columnists, among hundreds of other nonessential job categories.
Gail: Take a deep breath. The weather’s getting warmer. Biden’s campaign should begin to pick up the pace once we’re past lockdown. Meanwhile, Bret, think positive and wash your hands.
Bret: Just did, for probably the seventh time today. Purelled, too.
The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.
Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.
Source: Elections - nytimes.com
