Politics

FLASHBACK: Neera Tanden Supported Christine Ford, Discredited Tara Reade

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• President Joe Biden’s pick for Director of the Office of Management and Budget Neera Tanden supported Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
• Tanden also tweeted “Believe women, unless it doesn’t work for your ambition,” in support of Elizabeth Warren’s claim that Bernie Sanders said a woman could not become president.
• Tanden also repeatedly dismissed Biden accuser Tara Reade’s allegations. 

President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget Neera Tanden supported Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, but dismissed Biden accuser Tara Reade’s allegations.

Tanden repeatedly expressed support for Ford and condemnation of Kavanaugh without addressing inconsistencies in Ford’s stories. She would later repeatedly pick apart disputed facts of Reade’s story, though analysis by the Daily Caller News Foundation found that Reade had more supporting evidence for her allegations against Biden than Ford had for her allegations against Kavanaugh.

“Believe women, unless it doesn’t work for your ambition,” Tanden tweeted in early 2020. Her tweet referred to former presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren’s claim that failed presidential candidate Bernie Sanders told Warren that a woman could not become president. Sanders has denied the claim.

The phrase “believe women” became popular at the height of the #METOO movement when Ford accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were in high school.

Tanden, who also formerly led the liberal think tank the Center for American Progress (CAP), spoke out against Kavanaugh and in support of Ford on a number of occasions.

“Brett Kavanaugh is a liar,” she tweeted Sept. 6, 2018. Ford had not yet come forward with her allegations against Kavanaugh at that time, and Kavanaugh was facing pressure from those who feared that his appointment would result in dangerous limits on abortion access and other prominent political issues.

Brett Kavanaugh is a liar.

— Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) September 6, 2018

“Can we have a @gofundme fund for Dr. Ford? She’s hiring private security and moving out of her house for the love of God,” Tanden tweeted Sept. 18, 2018, the day Ford’s attorneys Debra Katz and Lisa Banks called for an FBI investigation to be conducted into Kavanaugh’s behavior.

“Brett Kavanaugh is a disgusting person,” she tweeted on Sept. 24, 2018, referencing a New York Times article which took a deep dive into Kavanaugh’s high school yearbook.

Kavanaugh’s testimony was a week ago today. He could have acknowledged immediately after that he went too far. But he didn’t. He only writes his op ed when his nomination hangs in the balance. He obviously doesn’t mean a word of it.

— Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) October 5, 2018

Many of those who backed Ford’s sexual assault accusations against Kavanaugh stayed silent when Tara Reade accused Biden of sexually assaulting her when she worked for him as a senate staffer in 1993. Biden has repeatedly denied these allegations.

Tanden suggested that Reade was in cahoots with Trump allies.

“Really suprised that a former Fox News news star is working with a former Fox News producer to push a story that is now being lawyered up by a Trump donor — that involves accusations against the Dem nominee,” she tweeted in May 2020 when journalist Megyn Kelly interviewed Reade. “This seems Extremely on the level.”

Tanden described Reade’s story as having “massive inconsistencies at best and lies at worst.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that Tanden wrote: “These Republican male senators sitting in judgment of Dr. Ford need to take up knitting,” and criticized Republican Maine Sen. Susan Collins for a “pathetically bad faith argument as cover for President Trump’s vicious attacks on survivors of sexual assault.”

She claims her first lodged complaint about this was not assault at all? This seems like a major issue. https://t.co/JF3JAEDS7X

— Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) May 1, 2020

After Reade called on Biden through the DCNF to release his senate personnel documents in hopes of locating the complaint she said she filed against Biden, Tanden suggested that media only wished for Biden to release the records for “clicks.”

“I’m going to break through the media game being played here,” she tweeted in May 2020.

“Personnel records aren’t often in a Senator’s papers; everyone knows this,” she continued. “But the media is a partisan in wanting the UD files because they want the fodder of 30 years of senate gossip for clicks.”

Confusion surrounds the location and contents of the complaint Reade says she filed 27 years ago.  It’s been suggested that the complaint may be housed with Biden’s Senate records at the University of Delaware, in the National Archives or in the U.S. Senate.

Biden has insisted that Reade’s complaint, if it exists, would not be included in his Senate documents at the university and that these documents “could be taken out of context” if fully released.

The Daily Caller News Foundation and Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against the University of Delaware in July for access to all records from Biden’s Senate career that are housed in the university’s library.

Tanden did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.