Innocence Can’t Be Proven
The left’s ongoing failure to have a serious discussion about evidence is an open invitation to the right to weaponize sexual assault allegations
For a number of reasons, I didn’t vote for Joe Biden in the primary. I filled in the circle next to another candidate’s name on my absentee ballot. That’s totally irrelevant but sadly must be stated upfront just to get some of the former Vice President’s harshest critics on both the right and the left to keep reading.
In fact, for purposes of this article, Joe Biden could be any public figure. Replace Joe Biden’s name each time you see it with Bernie Sanders’ name, or the name of your favorite public official, then imagine that person being accused of a serious sexual crime and it will become clear that the identity of the accused has no bearing on the arguments that are about to follow.
One last thing needs to be said here before I get started: I’m agnostic when it comes to the charges Tara Reade has made against former Vice President Biden. For one thing, I wasn’t there. If Reade and Biden agree about anything it’s that there are no witnesses to the assault she alleges. In her case, it’s because they were alone when it occurred and in his case, it’s because he claims it never happened.
Regardless, if we’re being honest, this lack of witnesses together with the fact that both Reade and Biden can point to people able to provide at least some degree of corroboration for their version of events creates a challenge for those of us looking in upon this case from the outside.
This is not an uncommon problem. Sexual crimes rarely involve more than a single perpetrator and a single victim. Victims of these crimes are understandably frustrated that this fact about them seriously complicates the investigation of the crime. Even in cases where DNA evidence is readily available it can be extremely difficult for outsiders to evaluate questions such as consent.
But the Biden case, like the case of former Senator Al Franken before it, poses an additional challenge because the allegations also occur in a political context. Unlike Republicans, who have shown little interest in taking the allegations against individuals like Donald…
