A feminist writer has brushed off Joe Biden's sexual assault allegations and says she would vote for him to be president even 'if ...
A feminist writer has brushed off Joe Biden's sexual assault allegations and says she would vote for him to be president even 'if he boiled babies and ate them'.
Magazine columnist Katha Pollitt, 70, wrote she was so desperate to get President Donald Trump out of the White House that democrat presumptive nominee Joe Biden had her vote despite allegations he sexually assaulted Tara Reade in 1993.
Writing in The Nation, where she has a bimonthly column called Subject To Debate, Ms Pollitt said: 'I would vote for Joe Biden if he boiled babies and ate them.'
'I cannot believe that a rational person can grasp the disaster that is Donald Trump and withhold their support from Biden because of Tara Reade,' she added. 'I would say this even if I had no problems with Reade's account.'
Ms Pollitt is well-known for her prominent writings on feminist discourse and has written books titled; Reasonable Creatures: Essays on Women and Feminism, and Subject to Debate: Sense and Dissents on Women, Politics and Culture.
Magazine columnist Katha Pollitt (pictured in 2015), 70, wrote she was so desperate to get President Donald Trump out of the White House that democrat nominee Joe Biden had her vote despite allegations he sexually assaulted Tara Reade in 1993
In her latest column, published on Wednesday, she acknowledged that she would usually 'take women's accusations very seriously'.
Tara Reade has accused Biden of cornering her while she worked as a staffer in the Capitol 27 years ago.
Ms Pollitt wrote: 'To believe Reade, you have to believe that Biden put her up against a wall and penetrated her with his fingers on the spur of the moment in a hallway in the Capitol complex, where she says she was looking for him to give him his gym bag.'
Ms Pollitt, author of four essay collections and two books of poetry, is a liberal who focuses on themes of politics; abortion, welfare reform and feminism.
In 1991 she coined the phrase The Smurfette Principle, where she compared herself to the 'lone female' in a group of men.
Tara Reade has accused Biden (pictured on March 15 in Washington) of cornering her while she worked as a staffer in the Capitol 27 years ago
Tara Reade (pictured) spoke of how 'shattering' her alleged sexual abuse by Biden was in a newly-released interview with former Fox News host Megyn Kelly
Ms Pollitt has since tweeted in defense of her column piece, calling her intro 'dark humor and comic overstatement'
Responding to the criticism of her column piece she has since tweeted: 'Most of the negative comments about my Tara Reade piece are from tender souls horrified by the boiled babies in the lede.
'Some ppl don't appreciate dark humor and comic overstatement. They must have a hard time in this fallen world.'
Pundit Krystal Ball called Ms Pollitt's column 'deranged' and claimed it showed how far Democrats had strayed.
In a tweet yesterday she penned: 'This is deranged. A writer for The Nation says she would vote for Joe Biden even if he ate boiled babies.
'This is what many in the Democratic Party have collapsed to in the Trump era. A willingness to abandon all principle and justify literally anything if it will hurt Trump.'
In her latest column, published on Wednesday, Ms Pollitt wrote the country could not cope with another term of President Trump (pictured yesterday at the White House) in power
Pundit Krystal Ball called Ms Pollitt's column 'deranged' and claimed it showed how far Democrats had strayed
Earlier this month Ms Reade told former Fox News and NBC News host Megyn Kelly she was so traumatized by the alleged assault she sometimes wakes up yelling 'stop'.
In a newly-released interview Reade, 56, said that the alleged attack 'shattered' her.
Reade has alleged that when she was 29, the then 50-year-old Biden - who she worked for as a staff assistant at the time - sexually harassed and assaulted her. Biden and his spokespeople have denied the claims.
Reade (left) told Megyn Kelly (right) about how she suffers from bad dreams about the alleged incident with Biden and that she wakes up yelling 'stop'
'I wanted to say "stop," and I thought it,' Reade told Kelly in the interview which was released in full on Friday.
'I don’t know if I said it,' Reade said, 'But sometimes, when I’ve had a couple bad dreams or a few bad dreams about it, I wake up yelling that and I wake up yelling "stop."'
She told Kelly that one incident took place in the hallway of a Capitol Hill building in Spring 1993, following previous sexual harassment incidents.
Reade said that she had been told to go and give Biden, now 77, a gym bag and that was when he allegedly kissed and then assaulted her.
'He said I want to f*** you,' Reade said. 'And he said it low. And I was pushing away and I remember my knee hurting because our knees, because he had opened my legs with his knee and our kneecaps clashed, so I felt this sharp pain.'
Reade added that 'His fingers were inside of my private area, my vagina.'
She said that afterwards, Biden told her she 'was nothing' before walking away.
'I think that's the hardest thing,' she told Kelly. 'Those words stayed with me my whole life.'
'I remember small things,' Reade continued. 'I remember trying to put my shoe back on because I came out of my shoe and I remember my knee hurting and I remember the smell.'
During the interview, Reade said that she wanted Biden to end his presidential run and face the music.
Reade (pictured April 4) told Kelly she wants Biden to withdraw from his presidential bid
'I want to say you and I were there, Joe Biden, please step forward and be held accountable, you should not be running on character for president of the United States,' Reade told Kelly, who had asked what her message was for Biden.
Kelly followed up by asking Reade if she wanted Biden to withdraw from the presidential contest.
'I wish he would,' Reade answered. 'But he won't, but I wish he would, that's how I feel emotionally.
She previously wrote on social media that Americans should support Bernie Sanders, Biden's former Democratic primary rival.
Reade (in undated pictures) said that Biden had kissed her and assaulted her in the hallway of a Capitol Hill building in 1993 when she was 29 and a Biden staff assistant
She then told Kelly that an apology now wouldn't be sufficient. 'I think it's a little late,' Reade said.
Reade revealed to Kelly that she had taken her complaint to both Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris' presidential campaigns when they were still active.
'I tried to reach out to them,' Reade said. 'I didn't get a response.'
She said she chose Harris because as a Californian, the ex-2020 candidate is her senator.
Reade also told Kelly that she would testify under oath and be cross examined, but she'd only take a polygraph test if the former vice president took one first.
'I'm not a criminal,' Reade said. 'Joe Biden should take the polygraph. What kind of precedent does that set for survivors of violence? Does that mean we're presumed guilty? And we all have to take polygraphs.'
Biden has denied Reade's claims, saying that the assault 'unequivocally' did not happen
'So I will take one if Joe Biden takes one, but I am not a criminal,' Reade added.
Reade's interview with Kelly came a week after Biden 'unequivocally' denied the allegations during an on-air Morning Joe interview.
'I’m saying it unequivocally: It never, never happened. And it didn’t. It never happened,' Biden said.
After clips from Kelly's interview with Reade began being released Thursday, May 7, Biden’s spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield said, according to People: 'Women must receive the benefit of the doubt.
'They must be able to come forward and share their stories without fear of retribution or harm — and we all have a responsibility to ensure that.
'At the same time, we can never sacrifice the truth. And the truth is that these allegations are false and that the material that has been presented to back them up, under scrutiny, keeps proving their falsity.'
Speaking with MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell on May 14, Biden was asked whether he remembered Ms Reade.
'Well, to be honest with you, I don't,' Biden said.
'But let me get something clear, when a woman makes a claim that she has been harassed or abused, and this claim has changed... she should be taken seriously,' Biden said.
During an interview with MSNBC (pictured), Biden said he did not remember Reade during her time working as one of his aide's when he was a Senator, but insisted that she should be taken seriously
'She should come forward, share her story, she should be taken seriously and it should be thoroughly vetted. And in every case, what matters is the truth. The truth is what matters.
'And the truth of the case is nothing like this ever, ever happened... I give you my word. It never, ever happened. I give you my word. It never, ever happened.'
Following Biden's denial, O'Donnell brought his attention to a New York Times opinion piece titled 'I Believe Tara Reade. I'm Voting for Joe Biden Anyway' in which the author says that despite believing the accusations, she would still vote for Biden over Donald Trump, writing 'suck it up and make the utilitarian bargain'.
In response, Biden said: 'Well, I think they should vote their heart and if they believe Tara Reade, they probably shouldn't vote for me. I wouldn't vote for me if I believed Tara Reade.
'The fact is that look at Tara Reade's story. It changes considerably. And I don't want to question her motive, I don't want to question anything other than to say the truth matters,' he told the MSNBC host.
'This is being vetted, it's been vetted, [by] people [and] scores of my employees over my whole career. This is just totally, thoroughly, completely out of character. And the idea that in a public place, in a hallway I would assault a woman? ... I promise you. It never happened.'
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