« And all of that to be fodder in a campaign at this time … »
Even apart from its connection to the Tara Reade allegation, this contradiction from Joe Biden should prompt plenty of headscratching. In his contentious interview with Mika Brzezinski on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Biden refused to offer up access to his official papers at the University of Delaware — for any purpose, including a search limited to only Reade.
Other than the fact that you can’t read the pages, Biden says, he’s an “open book” (transcript via MSNBC):
BRZEZINSKI: “The New York Times” has investigated this exhaustively. They didn’t find any of your former staff members were able to corroborate the details of this allegation. She did file a police report a few weeks ago with the D. C. Police, but since you want to set the record straight, why limit this only to Tara Reade? Why not release any complaints that had may — had been made against you during your Senate career?
BIDEN: I’m prepared to do that. To the best of my knowledge, there’s been no complaints made against me in terms of my Senate career, in terms of my office and anything that has been run (ph). Look, this is an open book. There’s nothing for me to hide. Nothing at all.
“Open book” is apparently a term of art. When Brzezinski presses Biden on access to the papers that have come from almost 50 years of public office — the very experience on which Biden is campaigning — he refuses. Allowing the media to access his papers would create “campaign fodder” for Trump, Biden declares:
Full exchange on Biden saying he won’t release his Senate records at the Univ. of Delaware —
« The idea that they would be made public while I was running for public office, they could be taken out of context… they could be fodder. » pic.twitter.com/tUOGBBttOd
Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 1,2020
BRZEZINSKI: The first is about your University of Delaware records.
