We have been discussing special dispensation granted to former Vice President Joe Biden by Democratic members and the media.  Yesterday, Rep. Iihan Omar, D-Minn., became the latest member to declare that she believes that Biden did rape a Senate aide and is continuing to lie about the crime in public statements.  However, Omar reaffirmed that she will do everything in her power to make him the next president of the United States.

(Article republished from JonathanTurley.org)

Many Democratic politicians and commentators have struggled with the clearly hypocritical position of declaring Biden innocent while previously insisting that women “must be believed.” The problem is that, if you declare that no one has a right to be simply believed, it requires a full and fair investigation. However, Biden has refused to open up his records to look into any allegations of sexual harassment or sexual abuse by Reade or others.  Thus, you can either declare Biden to be innocent without such a review of this papers as has Speaker Nancy Pelosi or you have to call for his records to be reviewed.  The alternative is to just accept his guilt as a rapist (thus avoiding the need for an investigation in that and other claims) but say it really doesn’t change anything. Indeed, the Bush ethics lawyers chastised Omar for admitting that she believes Reade because it might undermine Biden’s election chances.

Omar told the British Sunday Times. ““I do believe Reade,  Justice can be delayed but should never be denied.”  She then however proceeded to deny any sense of justice beyond saying that Reade will be believed and then ignored.  Omar insisted that she would work to elect Biden even though she believes him to be a rapist.

Notably, Biden recently declared that a voter who believe Reade should not vote for him.

I fail to the moral high ground in this statement or how it is better than saying that you do not believe Reade.  The most principled position is to agree that Biden should open up all of his records, including those under lock and key at the University of Delaware, to a search for any sexual abuse allegations by anyone.  However, I have previously said that I believe that Biden has the stronger case thus far in the controversy.  Yet, politicians like Omar want to maintain that they believe all women but that it does not matter.  It does not matter if such women were raped or that Biden is the rapist under their logic. It is a position that risks moving from the role of a denier to that of an enabler. Omar is saying that she will campaign for a politician who not only, in her view, raped a staffer but is going around the country lying about the rape.  It is hard to imagine the parallel universe where that is a morally superior, or even a morally cognizable, position

Read more at: JonathanTurley.org