ANALYSIS/OPINION:
Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has accomplished something for women that no other Democrat could: He has exposed the fraud of the #MeToo movement. Most of its high-profile supporters responded by smothering it to death with a pillow.
You see, Mr. Biden’s candidacy, combined with a credible accusation against him of rape in 1993 by Tara Reade, who was then a member of his Senate staff, has made it undeniable that the #MeToo movement has been a cynical political charade. Many women around the country were heartened by the effort, and it’s these women who are harmed by not just the hypocrisy but by the grotesque indifference to the impact of frauds like this.
Finally, after weeks of ignoring it, Mr. Biden personally addressed the accusations on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” He denied the accusations as has his campaign repeatedly on his behalf. Many were hoping this moment of personal denial would be enough, allowing the media and Democratic leadership to move on. They tried ignoring the charges for weeks and were only forced to address them when the haunting audio of Ms. Reade’s mother on “The Larry King Show” in 1993 asking for advice forced the media to face the story.
So many Democrats, Hollywood celebrities and liberal activists lifted their voices in outrage and indignation in response to sexual assault allegations against now-Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. As they ordered us to “believe all women,” we heard denunciations of due process and that the accused must prove their innocence. The man pointed at would be given no quarter because the rules have changed — or so we were lectured.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who for a time was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president and was primarily responsible for former Sen. Al Franken’s resignation from the Senate because of sexual harassment allegations, has endorsed Mr. Biden for president. During a recent video meeting, Ms. Gillibrand of New York said, “Vice President Biden has vehemently denied these allegations, and I support Vice President Biden.”
Well, that should do it.
Sen. Kamala D. Harris, California Democrat, was leading the charge against Justice Kavanaugh during the Senate hearings. Carrie Severino, in a piece at FoxNews.com noted, “As recently as last year Harris said that she believed numerous women who accused Biden of unwanted touching. Of course, that was when she was running against Biden for the nomination. Now that Harris is on the Biden VP shortlist, it’s nothing but crickets.”
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has also endorsed Mr. Biden. When confronted by a reporter asking about the “different standard” between Justice Kavanaugh and Mr. Biden, the woman who condemned Justice Kavanaugh snapped at the reporter saying she didn’t need a “lecture,” on the “believe all women” issue. The speaker then went on to laud Mr. Biden for his work supporting women’s issues, authoring the Violence Against Women Act as an example, leading her to stamp him as a person of “great character.”
Lost upon Mrs. Pelosi is the fact that the men who have egregious histories of abusing women in Hollywood and in Washington, D.C., have a history of specifically and deliberately “working on women’s issues.” This strategy seems to provide a bubble of protection, just ask imprisoned movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, former President Bill Clinton, disgraced former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
Even the woman considered the founder of the #MeToo movement, Tarana Burke, has decided that Mr. Biden is still “electable,” admitting in a tweet that “the inconvenient truth is that this story is impacting us differently because it hits at the heart of one of the most important elections of our lifetime.”
In other words, politics wins out when the accused is a Democrat. The woman is suddenly expendable. For the party and these activist liberals, women are a commodity to be used and controlled.
Rose McGowan understands this. She is the actress and feminist activist who has been consistently committed to issues of sexual assault and was the first to make a rape allegation public against Weinstein. For a while, Miss McGowan was the lone voice from the Hollywood #MeToo movement expressing her disgust at the hypocrisy over how Ms. Reade has been treated, while condemning the Democratic Party for its hypocrisy and abandonment of women.
Recently another actress stepped up. Star of HBO’s “Westworld” Evan Rachel Wood. Fox News reported, “Wood, 32, on Friday directly responded to McGowan’s latest tweet in which the former ‘Charmed’ actress declared she is no longer a ‘proud Democrat’ due to her affiliated party downplaying sexual assault allegations against Biden by Tara Reade. … ‘I have to say this is … spot on,’ Wood tweeted in response to McGowan’s lengthy post.”
Since this expression of support, Ms. Wood has had to protect her Twitter account by making it private.
One frustration for Miss McGowan is the response by Alyssa Milano, another actress, #MeToo activist and Trump- and Kavanaugh-hater. Ms. Milano continues to massage her hypocritical buffoonery by explaining that while Ms. Reade’s accusations concern her deeply, Mr. Biden is someone “who I can’t picture doing any of the things of which he’s accused.”
So whether or not a woman will be taken seriously by #MeToo activists depends on whether or not they can imagine it. Got it.
The Daily Caller Foundation spoke to Ms. Reade about the silence about her alleged experience from women’s groups: “She asked, ‘Emily’s List, where are you? Gloria Steinem? Where are you? Where are these people?’ “
Where are they? Busy hammering the final nail in the #MeToo movement coffin.
• Tammy Bruce, president of Independent Women’s Voice, author and Fox News contributor, is a radio talk-show host.
