CLAIM: Joe Biden has called for the release of “any records” related to Tara Reade’s sexual assault allegation against him.
VERDICT: False.
Joe Biden is not calling for the release of “any records” related to Reade’s allegation, such as documents in his Senate papers held by the University of Delaware. He is only calling for one agency, the National Archives and Records Administration, to release “any records” related to the allegation.
Here are two examples of how the media are deliberately deceiving voters into believing Biden is being 100 percent transparent when the exact opposite is true (as I will explain below):
NBC News headline: “Biden denies Tara Reade sexual assault allegation, calls for release of any records.”
ABC News correspondent’s tweet: “Biden calling for any records to be released.” Five minutes later, rather than delete the misleading tweet, this ABC staffer did finally report that Biden is refusing to release his Senate papers from the University of Delaware — which, of course, proves her first message is false.
To recap, Biden is only asking for “any records” to be released from the National Archives. But the National Archives told Business Insider’s Nicole Einbinder that “they do not hold records from that office,” meaning the Office of Fair Employment Practices, which is where Reade’s alleged complaint would have been filed, or eventually ended up.
What’s more, according to Einbinder, “If Reade’s complaint was filed to the Office of Fair Employment Practices, the record will remain closed until 2043 — more than two decades from now.”
Two.
Decades.
And Biden has not specifically called for the Office of Fair Employment to release “any records” — to unseal them, if they exist, earlier than 2043.
The fact of the matter is that Biden is only calling for an institution that would not hold pertinent records — the National Archives — to release records.
Secondly, during his Morning Joe interview Friday, Biden adamantly refused to authorize the release of his Senate papers, which are currently being held at the University of Delaware. Investigative reporter Rich McHugh believes that if Reade did indeed file a harassment complaint, this is where the complaint might be found.
Most disturbing is this Business Insider report that claims Biden sent operatives to the University of Delaware to go through those papers. True transparency would mean allowing an independent third party to review the records before his own partisan allies.
Even if you forget Reade’s assault allegation — which she apparently told family and at least one neighbor about in the mid-’90s — Biden is running for president and is refusing to release 40 years of records pertaining directly to his public life. Biden is even admitting he doesn’t want those records released for fear there might be something embarrassing in there.
And then there is this not-unimportant question that only those records can answer: Reade claims she was fired in retaliation for filing a harassment complaint against Biden. What is the Biden version of why Reade left her job at his Senate office?
You would think Biden would be eager to release personnel records detailing why Reade left her job at his Senate office. The official reason for her departure will be in those records.
So what we have here are the media once again aiding and abetting a high-profile Democrat looking to cover up alleged wrongdoing. And this time the media are aiding and abetting a coverup by deliberately spinning Biden’s refusal to release his Senate papers into something that is meant to sound like full transparency on his part.
This, of course, is not surprising.
After spending months ignoring, dismissing, and demeaning Reade, it only makes sense that the far-left establishment media would now try to kill a politically inconvenient story with headlines about Biden’s denial and willingness to seek out “any documents” about the incident.
The truth, however, is this…
During his Morning Joe interview, Biden said Reade’s claims deserve to be taken seriously and fully investigated, but he is the one blocking that full investigation.
On Thursday, I detailed eight reasons why Biden is acting like a man guilty of sexual assault. The fact that Biden has not released his version of why Reade left his Senate office is now number nine.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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