Biden denies the assault charge

Since I've posted on the sexual assault accusation against Joe Biden by one of his former Senate staffers, who alleges an incident that occurred 27 years ago, I'll mention here that Biden has now publicly and personally denied that the incident occurred. (Trevor Hunnicutt and John Whitesides, Democrat Joe Biden says alleged sexual assault 'never happened' Reuters 05/01/2020)

Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeit on their left-right news and commentary show, The Hill's Rising, reacted to the news, MSNBC presses Biden on allegation, misses the mark 05/01/2020. In this instance, both the "left" and "right" parts of the show seem downright enthusiastic in making the best possible case for the truth of the accuser's report.

I don't have anything new to add to what I've said about how this story is likely to play out in the Presidential campaign. It will clearly create some amount of awkwardness for the woman Biden picks as his running mate.

I would like to think this particular case would lead to some kind of improvement in the way the media and the political parties handle such issues. We can always hope.

In anything so high-stakes as a US Presidential election, fairness and justice for a story like this are likely to come up short. These are tough stories for anyone to evaluate realistically. Since we're talking about an alleged incident in which only two people were present, almost none of us will be able to form a realistic opinion about what happened in the absence of some strong contemporary confirmation coming to light. Outside of that, only someone with specialized training and experience in evaluating sexual assault testimony, like a therapist or police investigator, would be able to form some realistic opinion of what happened by talking to the two people who were in the room.

The fact is that when incidents like the one alleged in this case happen, they are a shock to the victim, who may be genuinely confused about what to do, along with feeling angry and afraid and ashamed. And in the case of a boss and an employee, there is a real power disparity and the perpetrator often has significant ability to retaliate professionally against the accuser. That is particularly so when the perpetrator is, say, a powerful US Senator or the head of a Hollywood movie studio.

Everyone's situation is different. But it is probably a good idea for anyone in that situation to at least make some kind of comtemporary record of what just happened. Because 20 or 30 years afterwards, you may be in a position to call the person to acocunt in some way. As we saw with Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein.