MSNBC “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski on Friday said it is “a good thing” that the media is not applying the same standard to Tara Reade’s allegations of sexual assault by likely 2020 Democratic presidential nominee former Vice President Joe Biden during his time as Delaware’s U.S. Senator.
Brzezinski said the “blanket and absolute standard” of believing all women that were applied to now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation is not something the media should practice. Instead, Brzezinski said the media should report the facts and give the accuser and accused “full due process.”
“[F]irst, let’s talk about the criticism by some, particularly on the right, that the media has not applied the same standard to this allegation against Biden as it did the allegations against Judge Brett Kavanaugh when he was undergoing his confirmation process,” Brzezinski began. “We think that’s a good thing. The media should not apply what seemed to be a Kavanaugh standard to Joe Biden. The media should not apply the same standard most applied to Judge Kavanaugh to Donald Trump. The media should not apply a Kavanaugh standard to any public figure.”
She continued, “The blanket and absolute standard of simply believing all women is a notion we dismissed here on the show early on. The standard for the media in covering sexual assault allegations needs to be to report the facts, listen to the accuser, and give the accused full due process, both men and women. We were very clear about that on the show during the Kavanaugh story.”
In an interview later in the show with Brzezinski, Biden strongly denied the accusations of sexual assault.
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