Vox: All Posts by Laura McGannhttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/52517/voxv.png2020-11-05T20:40:00-05:00https://www.vox.com/authors/laura-mcgann/rss2020-11-05T20:40:00-05:002020-11-05T20:40:00-05:00Anderson Cooper described Trump as “an obese turtle on his back flailing in the hot sun”
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<figcaption>Anderson Cooper has had it with Donald Trump’s nonsense. | Getty Images for CNN</figcaption>
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<p>Cooper used to be a conventional TV reporter. Then Trump became president. </p> <p id="T2JqaF">Anderson Cooper has gone on a journey over the past five years, from a conventional mainstream television news journalist to a man who looked into the camera Thursday night and described Donald Trump’s update on the state of the vote count like this: “That is the president of the United States. That is the most powerful person in the world, and we see him like an obese turtle on his back flailing in the hot sun.”</p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">WATCH: CNN' Anderson Cooper: "That is the President of the United States. That is the most powerful person in the world and we see him like an obese turtle on his back flailing in the hot sun..." <a href="https://t.co/pZBOhyKlzC">pic.twitter.com/pZBOhyKlzC</a></p>— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) <a href="https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1324508745335001088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 6, 2020</a>
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<p id="lqiwya">Though markedly colorful for a mainstream journalist, Cooper’s assessment isn’t inaccurate. Trump’s 15-minute statement from the White House was ludicrous. It was filled with more lies about the vote-counting process than are worth counting. </p>
<p id="MqOrhT">But to Cooper’s point, Trump looked inept. Make no mistake, Trump was trying to sow doubt about the process to hang on to power, whether or not he wins the votes. But his heart wasn’t in it. Trump’s been more animated about off-hour Fox News segments.</p>
<p id="V4WZae">Cooper, 53, isn’t an activist journalist. He’s done heartbreaking interviews with <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2020/04/25/anderson-cooper-tears-up-emotional-interview-coronavirus-widow/3026515001/">ordinary people</a> and celebrities like <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/joker-joaquin-phoenix-grants-anderson-cooper-rare-60-minutes-interview-2020-09-13/">Joaquin Phoenix</a>. He started his career answering phones at ABC. He went abroad and earned his reputation as a serious reporter covering war and violence in Somalia, Rwanda, and Bosnia. He co-anchored <em>World News Tonight</em> and later his own CNN news show, <em>Anderson Cooper 360</em>. He’s also a contributor to <em>60 Minutes</em>. </p>
<p id="0blAHk">TV journalists have reported Thursday that Trump has been down and angry. Trump’s path to victory has been narrowing in the past 24 hours. His voters overwhelmingly cast their ballots on Tuesday, which were counted first. As mail-in ballots are counted and tabulated, Joe Biden has been eating into Trump’s leads in swing states. The president’s legal team is filing desperate (and most likely doomed) legal challenges to try to stop the count in some places and recount them in others. The walls are closing in, so Trump is lashing out. </p>
<p id="KG2ssV">Not so long ago, Cooper would have been considered fringe (and probably then gotten fired) for describing a sitting president as he did tonight. But 2020 is not normal. The president is on his back, and he’s flailing.</p>
https://www.vox.com/2020/11/5/21552002/anderson-coopers-trump-turtle-back-cnnLaura McGann2020-08-22T17:36:50-04:002020-08-22T17:36:50-04:00Melania Trump’s changes to the White House Rose Garden, explained
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<figcaption>Melania Trump tore out trees and vibrant flowers in the Rose Garden and replaced them with paved walkways and subdued roses. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>She dug up trees and put in paved walkways. </p> <p id="rPqEoF">Melania Trump unveiled her overhaul of the White House Rose Garden Saturday, a month-long project that included digging up trees, replacing vibrant floral beds with white and pastel roses, and laying down paved walkways. </p>
<p id="G93fU8">Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but the decisions still sowed confusion online about how the “after” photos showed an improvement from the “before.”</p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Before and after photographs of newly renovated White House Rose Garden:<br>courtesy <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Getty?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Getty</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/marycjordan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@marycjordan</a> <a href="https://t.co/w6bzoNHMjC">pic.twitter.com/w6bzoNHMjC</a></p>— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) <a href="https://twitter.com/BeschlossDC/status/1297174218552102918?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 22, 2020</a>
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<p id="LKYC5b">Trump’s revamp was designed, in part, to “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/22/politics/melania-trump-rose-garden-restoration/index.html">fulfill the dynamic needs of the modern presidency</a>,” including making the space more amenable to TV cameras and other tech needs of the press corps. President Trump has been holding press conferences in the garden rather than inside the briefing room in recent weeks because of <a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19">Covid-19</a>. It’s expected to serve as the backdrop for the first lady’s Republican National Convention address on Tuesday, a controversial choice of venue that Democrats say is an <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/20/trump-rnc-speech-399483">illegal</a> use of the White House grounds. </p>
<p id="CHjaJY">President John F. Kennedy, who commissioned the garden in 1961, approached the project with a somewhat similar thought, asking horticulturalist and gardener Rachel Lambert Mellon to design something “useful and attractive,” as he planned for it to be used near daily. </p>
<p id="2vopOp">Mellon wrote a <a href="https://www.whitehousehistory.org/president-kennedys-rose-garden">first-person account</a> for the White House Historical Association on designing and constructing the garden. Kennedy and the first lady had just returned from a trip abroad in the summer of 1961 to Europe and Australia, where the president “had recognized the importance of gardens surrounding an official residence and their appeal to the sensibilities of all people,” she wrote. </p>
<h3 id="MrFatu">Crab apple trees were central to the design. Melania tore them out. </h3>
<p id="DPYjhi">Mellon decided trees would be an important component to include in her design, for both aesthetic and practical reasons. (Washington is sweltering in the summer.) </p>
<p id="Nj8HDA">One tree, a member of the rose family, anchored the long perimeter lines of the garden:</p>
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<p id="L9TrrR">The trees we chose were Katherine crab apples. Crab apples belong to the rose family and would blend well with the roses, perennials, annuals, and herbs that would grow beneath and around them. Aware that the garden would be used almost every day of the year and that the President had high hopes for it, I decided to divide the long beds into sections. The design, with a crab apple as the center of each section, would repeat itself and run like a ribbon the length of both beds.</p>
<p id="63szhX">A large diamond-shaped outline of santolina would surround each crab-apple tree. Each diamond would be set in a larger outline: a small clipped English boxwood hedge and, next to the lawn, a low growing hybrid boxwood called Greenpillow, developed by Henry Hohman in Kingsville, Maryland.</p>
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<p id="jW1YNf">Melania Trump dug them up. ABC reports the dozen trees will be <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/spruced-white-house-rose-garden-set-melania-trump-speech-n1237775">replanted</a> elsewhere on the White House grounds. </p>
<p id="cPVCNB">She did, however, introduce a 3-foot-wide limestone walkway around the perimeter of the center lawn. (The White House said less noticeable changes include improvements to make the garden more accessible for people with disabilities.) </p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Trumps paved paradise and put up a parking lot. <a href="https://t.co/XVLthzu37f">https://t.co/XVLthzu37f</a></p>— The Daily Edge (@TheDailyEdge) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheDailyEdge/status/1297244321549365255?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 22, 2020</a>
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<p id="n27PsQ">Trump also swapped out the colorful tulips and other bright perennials and annuals in Mellon’s design for white and pastel roses and sharp boxwood hedges. Mellon said Kennedy had asked for the vibrant look. “The President loved flowers and asked if a variety of other types could be mixed with the roses. He had read the published garden notes of Thomas Jefferson and hoped for flowers used in Jefferson’s period,” she wrote. </p>
<h3 id="X2Prp5">There are more important things than gardens </h3>
<p id="zhMRFT">The changes to the Rose Garden struck a nerve on Saturday, with outrage tweets dominating Twitter. Why, many critics asked, did Melania need to change the design at all? And why take out trees? Why make the flowers less vibrant? </p>
<p id="a5mbNc">Still, many conceded that there are more things to be mad about in Washington these days than landscaping. There’s the failed White House response to the pandemic that has left more than <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html">175,000 Americans dead</a>. There’s the fact that Republicans in the Senate have <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/8/17/21368234/trump-republicans-covid-19-2020-democrats-senate-relief-stimulus-polls">no plan</a> to pass a bill to help millions of workers who’ve been left unemployed because of Covid-19. </p>
<p id="t3ZXe9">Perhaps, though, amid a dark moment, one where we’re all looking for a little good news and a flicker of hope that our leaders might just help us get through it, to see the White House take away a patch of brightness feels bigger than it otherwise would. </p>
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https://www.vox.com/2020/8/22/21397346/melania-trump-rose-garden-trees-limestone-pavement-white-houseLaura McGann2020-05-07T13:55:26-04:002020-05-07T13:55:26-04:00The agonizing story of Tara Reade
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<figcaption>Tara Reade, a former staff assistant in Joe Biden’s Senate office, on April 11. | Max Whittaker/New York Times/Redux</figcaption>
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<p>I started reporting on Tara Reade’s story a year ago. Here’s what I found, and where I’m stuck.</p> <p id="NAKd8C">In April 2019, a woman named Tara Reade reached out to me with a clear, consistent story to tell about her experience as a staffer in Joe Biden’s Senate office in 1993. I spent hours on the phone with her, and many more tracking down possible witnesses and documents, trying to confirm her account. </p>
<p id="TQhWH3">Reade told me that a senior aide told her Biden liked her legs and that he wanted her to serve cocktails at a fundraiser for him, a request she found demeaning and declined. When she later complained to others in the office that Biden would put his hands on her shoulder, neck, and hair during meetings in ways that made her uncomfortable, she says she was blamed and told to dress more conservatively. Within a few months, she said, her responsibilities had been stripped and she felt she was being pushed out of the job. She went back home to California deflated. </p>
<p id="qe1X6y">Reade told me that she wanted me to think of this story as being about abuse of power, “but not sexual misconduct.” Her emphasis was on how she was treated in Biden’s office by Senate aides, who she said retaliated against her for complaining about how Biden touched her in meetings. “I don’t know if [Biden] knew why I left,” she said. “He barely knew us by name.”</p>
<p id="0KON8L">She sent me an email that evening with an essay she’d written. Her local paper in California, the Union, published a similar version a few weeks later with a line she’d sent to me, too: “This is not a story about sexual misconduct; it is a story about abuse of power. It is a story about when a member of Congress allows staff to threaten or belittle or bully on their behalf unchecked to maintain power rather than modify the behavior.” </p>
<p id="eJYaQG">Last year, Reade encouraged me to speak with a friend of hers who counseled her through her time in Biden’s office in 1992 and 1993. The friend was clear about what had happened, and what hadn’t.</p>
<p id="FYYcty">“On the scale of other things we heard, and I feel ashamed, but it wasn’t that bad. [Biden] never tried to kiss her directly. He never went for one of those touches. It was one of those, ‘sorry you took it that way.’ I know that is very hard to explain,” the friend told me. She went on: “What was creepy was that it was always in front of people.” </p>
<p id="OrmWnZ">I wanted to break this story. Badly. About half a dozen women had stepped forward around the time I spoke with Reade to say they were bothered by how Biden had touched them at events. I <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/3/29/18241598/joe-biden-lucy-flores-touching-women-media-history-explained">wrote</a> a column praising them for staring down the political media that had given him a pass for all those years. Reade’s story took these complaints further — showing how even lower-grade inappropriate conduct can have real consequences for a woman’s career, an important subject that we still don’t talk about nearly enough. </p>
<p id="jrV2z3">I knew I wasn’t the only reporter Reade was talking to. The New York Times had three reporters on the story, she told me. On April 3, the day after we first spoke, she texted me four times. She wanted to know when I planned to publish, and she warned me that other outlets were getting ready to do so.</p>
<p id="Ez4XUu">That day, <a href="https://www.theunion.com/news/nevada-county-woman-says-joe-biden-inappropriately-touched-her-while-working-in-his-u-s-senate-office/">the Union</a> published an article with her story. This happens sometimes. It’s happened to me, many times. You fight for a story that would be explosive if you could prove it, but you can’t. I continued reporting on her story for a few more weeks after the story broke, but I didn’t get enough. Vox did not publish anything about Reade in 2019. Neither did the major outlets that I know were pursuing the story, including the Times, the Washington Post, and the Associated Press. </p>
<p id="VgWIFC">In March 2020, Reade resurfaced with a new allegation, which she told on <a href="https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/03/tara-reade-tells-her-story"><em>The Katie Halper Show</em></a>. In addition to her account of her experience with office staff, Reade said that in 1993, Biden forced an unwanted sexual encounter on her. She said Biden pushed her against a wall on the Capitol grounds, kissed her, and then digitally penetrated her — all against her will. </p>
<p id="BHkN2G">Biden’s campaign did not respond publicly to Reade’s claims in 2019. On May 1, Biden answered questions about the allegations for the first time on MSNBC’s <em>Morning Joe</em>. He denied all of Reade’s claims and underscored his denial of the sexual assault allegation. “I’m saying unequivocally, it never, never happened,” he <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/5/1/21243591/joe-biden-tara-reade-morning-joe">told</a> host Mika Brzezinski.</p>
<p id="jPPz6y">Three aides whom Reade said she approached about her complaints in 1993 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/us/politics/joe-biden-tara-reade-sexual-assault-complaint.html">told</a> the New York Times that they also dispute her account. “I never once witnessed, or heard of, or received, any reports of inappropriate conduct, period — not from Ms. Reade, not from anyone,” said Marianne Baker, Biden’s longtime executive assistant. “I have absolutely no knowledge or memory of Ms. Reade’s accounting of events, which would have left a searing impression on me as a woman professional, and as a manager.” </p>
<p id="kl5f56">When Reade’s story reemerged in a new form, I went through my reporting notes and interview transcripts from a year ago. I spoke with Reade last week for several hours over the course of multiple interviews. Reade and I have had a good rapport. She’s optimistic and idealistic, even, as one friend told me, to a fault. When she tells her account, she becomes emotional. She seems sincere. </p>
<aside id="6wmWDP"><div data-anthem-component="readmore" data-anthem-component-data='{"stories":[{"title":"The debate over what “believe women” means, explained","url":"https://www.vox.com/2020/5/6/21246667/believe-women-joe-biden-tara-reade-sexual-assault-allegation"}]}'></div></aside><p id="ofBVc8">If I were an old friend of Reade’s and she told me this same story privately over the course of a year, I doubt I would question her account.<strong> </strong>The brain processes traumatic experiences differently, making it difficult for some survivors to share them as a linear narrative. And the personal nature of a sexual assault can saddle victims with feelings of shame and doubt. It’s not easy to talk about. Many sexual assault survivors never speak of the experience at all. </p>
<p id="6ARiu7">But I’m not an old friend. I’m a journalist. Reade came to me because she wanted to share her story with the world, not just with me. It was clear in our conversations that she understood the difference. I listened to her, I interviewed relevant sources, and I returned to her many times in an attempt to get more information to help me find more corroboration. </p>
<p id="mntzBK">Reade’s latest allegation is far more serious and comes in a far more fraught political context.<strong> </strong>The story that both she and her corroborating witnesses are telling has changed dramatically. This leaves me — all of us — in an agonizing place. I’ve written many articles through the Me Too era. It’s unrealistic to demand <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/8/21/17760222/asia-argento-jimmy-bennett-sexual-assault-me-too">“perfect” victims</a>. And, like most who come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct or assault, Reade has suffered for speaking out. In several exchanges this year and last year, she’s shown me disturbing messages she’s received online. </p>
<p id="CI5aKM">As my colleague Anna North <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/5/6/21246667/believe-women-joe-biden-tara-reade-sexual-assault-allegation">writes</a>, there has long been an ambiguity in the Me Too movement. The rallying cry has been to “believe women.” But the acts of journalism that have driven the movement forward have been built on extraordinary amounts of evidence: They usually include not just consistent corroboration but oftentimes multiple stories, stacked on top of each other. Taking on powerful men over these issues was unthinkable just a few years ago. It’s required herculean effort. </p>
<h3 id="94SmPZ">Holding powerful men accountable takes a mountain of evidence </h3>
<p id="vXD5Sz">Reporters who’ve succeeded in forcing powerful men to be held to account relied on an incredible amount of reporting to do it. </p>
<p id="2fKeey">For example, Irin Carmon, who, along with Amy Brittain, exposed Charlie Rose for an alleged decades-long pattern of sexual harassment, had <a href="https://qz.com/1561639/why-it-took-so-long-to-expose-charlie-roses-sexual-harassment/">pursued the story for years</a>. When their exposé appeared in the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/eight-women-say-charlie-rose-sexually-harassed-them--with-nudity-groping-and-lewd-calls/2017/11/20/9b168de8-caec-11e7-8321-481fd63f174d_story.html">Washington Post</a>, it was built on accusations from eight women, three on the record. Carmon and Brittain found consistency across the women’s stories and strong corroboration of each account: </p>
<blockquote><p id="ygnhYf">There are striking commonalities in the accounts of the women, each of whom described their interactions with Rose in multiple interviews with The Post. For all of the women, reporters interviewed friends, colleagues or family members who said the women had confided in them about aspects of the incidents.</p></blockquote>
<p id="h7nnYK">Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein fell in 2017 after Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey of the New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/05/us/harvey-weinstein-harassment-allegations.html">published</a> the accounts of dozens of women who said Weinstein had assaulted or harassed them over the previous 30 years. Ronan Farrow <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/from-aggressive-overtures-to-sexual-assault-harvey-weinsteins-accusers-tell-their-stories">published</a> another story shortly after in the New Yorker, an account that included 13 accusations of sexual assault, three of them rape. All three reporters have gone on to <a href="https://www.amazon.com/She-Said-Breaking-Harassment-Movement/dp/0525560343">write</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/oct/15/ronan-farrow-book-harvey-weinstein-measures-bury-alleged-crimes">books</a> about the incredible lengths they went to in order to get the story. </p>
<p id="b4eyA0">Eight women have now said they’ve been made uncomfortable by Biden in public settings. Reade is the lone woman to accuse him of sexual assault. This is a situation out of her control, but it means that reporters can’t build a story about Biden around a pattern of behavior, where multiple accusers boost one another’s story. Instead, reporters are looking at Reade’s account in isolation — and that account has changed. </p>
<p id="OM9RNI">When we spoke a year ago, Reade told me the only named sources she could give me were her deceased mother and the friend I spoke to. A recently uncovered tape of her mom on <em>Larry King Live </em>appears to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td3f_B8qqR4">corroborate</a> Reade’s claim that she was struggling in Biden’s office in 1993, but does not include an assault allegation. When I reconnected with the friend I spoke to last year, who had previously told me Biden had not assaulted Reade, she told me a version of the story that matched Reade’s latest account.</p>
<p id="OKs9qd">This year, Reade said to Halper that she also told her brother about the alleged assault and harassment. He later told the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sexual-assault-allegation-by-former-biden-senate-aide-emerges-in-campaign-draws-denial/2020/04/12/bc070d66-7067-11ea-b148-e4ce3fbd85b5_story.html">Washington Post</a> in an interview that he remembers his sister was upset in 1993 about Biden touching her neck and shoulders. He followed up with a Post reporter a few days later over text message to say Reade also said Biden “put his hands under her clothes.” </p>
<p id="x8oKWh">Since then, a former neighbor of Reade’s, Lynda LaCasse, has come forward in an <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/former-neighbor-corroborates-joe-bidens-accuser-2020-4?utmSource=twitter&utmContent=referral&utmTerm=topbar&referrer=twitter">interview</a> with Business Insider. She said Reade spoke about the harassment and assault claims in 1995. I asked Reade why she hadn’t mentioned LaCasse to me a year ago, or to Halper, or to the first few reporters she told about her assault allegation, including the New York Times, which was working on a deep dive into her story at the same time. She said LaCasse hadn’t seemed like a relevant source because she’d talked to her two years after the alleged incident took place. Reade added that she told reporters about two other anonymous friends later who hadn’t seemed relevant to her either. When asked a <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/election-2020/ct-nw-joe-biden-tara-reade-sexual-assault-allegation-20200428-fpiury2sijc6hff3bblczor6a4-story.html">similar question</a> by the Associated Press, which had been working on the story, too, Reade didn’t respond. </p>
<p id="P3V8Ox">If Reade had told a consistent story and shared all of her corroborating sources with reporters, if those sources had told a consistent story, if the Union piece had shaken loose other cases like hers, or if there were “smoking gun” evidence in Biden’s papers, her account might have been reported on differently in mainstream media a year ago. It is not fair to an individual survivor that their claims require an extraordinary level of confirmation, but it’s what reporters have found is necessary for their stories to hold up to public scrutiny and successfully hold powerful men accountable. So we are here.</p>
<h3 id="iaYQqQ">The media took Reade seriously. She wanted more. </h3>
<p id="tt2BzV">When Halper asked Reade why she didn’t mention the assault allegation originally, she <a href="https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/03/tara-reade-tells-her-story">responded</a> by blaming the media: </p>
<blockquote><p id="Jgn6He">Well, I was going to tell the whole thing … the whole history with Biden. … But the way I was being questioned, it made me so uncomfortable that I didn’t trust it. And no offense to the reporters out there, it’s just maybe that’s something that can be learned, how to talk to somebody who got. … Because I just really got shut down. … And the narrative [they] really wanted it to be was that it wasn’t a sexual thing.<strong> </strong>Like don’t say it’s sexual. And so I was like, okay, I guess I can’t really say the whole story. …</p></blockquote>
<p id="ZUBiTT">But that wasn’t the narrative I wanted. I wanted the truth. And I certainly had no qualms about the accusations being of sexual misconduct. Reporters at many outlets, including the reporters Reade spoke to, have not shied away from reporting on detailed sexual assault allegations. In the Me Too era, reporters have been aggressive in uncovering stories of powerful men who, for far too long, have abused and assaulted women with no consequences.</p>
<p id="MqIfai">In the interview with Halper and in her most recent conversations with me, Reade was critical of how major outlets treated her story. For example, in the interview with Halper, Reade said she contacted “someone at the Washington Post<em> </em>and then they never really followed up.” </p>
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<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/er3V1PJS2qc66Fz3ApyP2g9PIV8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19938488/IMG_7891.jpg">
<cite>Courtesy of Tara Reade</cite>
<figcaption>Tara Reade in 1992.</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
<p id="n00V3e">The Washington Post says that it <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sexual-assault-allegation-by-former-biden-senate-aide-emerges-in-campaign-draws-denial/2020/04/12/bc070d66-7067-11ea-b148-e4ce3fbd85b5_story.html">interviewed Reade</a> “on multiple occasions — both this year and last — as well as people she says she told of the assault claim and more than a half-dozen former staffers of Biden’s Senate office,” a fact Reade conceded to me in an interview.</p>
<p id="W44g08">In a recent conversation, I asked Reade why she would say the media was shutting her down when she was initially so adamant with me (and other outlets) that this wasn’t a misconduct story. The only answer she gave was that she was speaking about the response to her claims “collectively.” And in her opinion, the added details still fit her construct that “this is not a story about sexual misconduct,” because, she told me, sexual assault itself is about power.</p>
<p id="HbjqRe">I spoke with Reade’s friend again this week. She said that Reade had told her about the alleged assault the week it happened in 1993. I asked the friend why, then, did she volunteer so explicitly that Biden “never tried to kiss her” or touch her inappropriately. “It just organically rolled out that way,” the friend said. “[Reade] and I had many conversations a year ago about what her degree of comfort was. She wanted to leave a layer there, and I did not want to betray that. It just wasn’t my place.” </p>
<h3 id="CPSuYT">The missing complaint </h3>
<p id="wtHIsu">Reade told me last year that she gave a supervisor a written statement voicing her complaints about how she’d been treated in the office. The complaint was limited to the harassment allegation, not the misconduct allegation, she told me this year. </p>
<p id="gmail-XoISVq">I helped Reade in 2019 request documents from a few offices to try to find the record. (Personnel files wouldn’t be released to a third party, like a reporter.) First, she put in a request with the <a href="https://www.senate.gov/reference/office/secretary_of_senate.htm">Senate secretary’s office</a>, which maintains some employment records. That office provided a copy of her payroll history, which confirmed her dates of employment and salary. </p>
<p id="iEkjlN">We next tried the <a href="https://www.opm.gov/faqs/QA.aspx?fid=f3147708-7bef-4959-aea7-ddefb0dee9dc&pid=88acdc49-7f79-449e-863d-8bc5574107ca">Office of Personnel Management</a>, which maintains federal records of employment, but the office was not able to track down a file in its electronic system. I then checked with a source who worked in a warehouse across the country where it would most likely have ended up to see if there was a physical file stashed there. He couldn’t find one. </p>
<p id="t7iahS">One place the complaint could have landed is back in the Senate office, though that wouldn’t be proper protocol. Biden is now <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-joe-biden-handles-the-tara-reade-allegations-is-a-crucial-test/2020/04/30/b1a37ffc-8afd-11ea-ac8a-fe9b8088e101_story.html">under pressure</a> to check files maintained by the University of Delaware. He gave the university his Senate documents in 2012 under the condition they’d remain <a href="http://www1.udel.edu/udaily/2013/mar/library-archivists-031313.html">sealed</a> until two years after his time in office. The time frame was extended when he decided to run for president. </p>
<p id="4pzNJJ">When asked on <em>Morning Joe</em> if he would have the documents reviewed, Biden <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/01/us/politics/joe-biden-tara-reade-msnbc.html">said he would not</a>, maintaining a personnel file wouldn’t be there and that the files are about his policy decision-making, speechwriting, etc. </p>
<p id="MCHYSY">Biden says that if a complaint exists, it would be held by the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/05/01/biden-delaware-documents/">National Archives</a> and they should release any relevant documents. He also sent a letter to the Senate secretary’s office asking for any relevant records, a request the office declined because any records that might exist are “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/05/04/850038361/senate-office-tells-biden-it-cannot-seek-tara-reade-records">strictly confidential</a>.” </p>
<p id="VoOY6G">Reade herself says the complaint didn’t include the assault accusation, so finding the complaint — or failing to find it — would neither corroborate nor debunk the most serious allegation. </p>
<p id="EgkjtB">The complaint could corroborate Reade’s claims of sexual harassment, which Biden also denies. But it’s well established that Biden has over the years touched women in a way that some have said made them uncomfortable, and Biden has acknowledged this publicly. Whether or not one finds his apology for that adequate, it’s the assault accusation that has made Reade the center of attention. All parties agree that the complaint wouldn’t speak to that. </p>
<h3 id="VpF25K">Where this leaves us</h3>
<p id="Oprobl">All of this leaves me where no reporter wants to be: mired in the miasma of uncertainty. I wanted to<strong> </strong>believe Reade when she first came to me, and I worked hard to find the evidence to make certain others would believe her, too. I couldn’t find it. None of that means Reade is lying, but it leaves us in the limbo of Me Too: a story that may be true but that we can’t prove.</p>
<p id="5gtaq2">There’s another issue at play, which Biden supporters and critics of Reade have pointed to in response to her allegation. A year ago, Reade went to mainstream, national outlets including the Times, the Post, and the Associated Press. It was in the middle of a competitive Democratic primary. She had no obvious connection to any candidate. And if voters or the party pushed Biden out, it was unclear who would benefit. </p>
<p id="NLx5rs">This year, Reade has emerged as an ardent Bernie Sanders supporter, with a much more damaging story to tell about Biden, who is now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. She went public with the rape accusation on a podcast sympathetic to Sanders and followed up with <a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/04/24/new-evidence-tara-reade-joe-biden/">Ryan Grim of the Intercept</a>, an outlet that has been consistently critical of Biden.</p>
<p id="zc7Y9h">A few weeks before Reade spoke to Halper, she replied to a tweet from Grim seeming to tease that a story was coming. Reade declined to elaborate on what she meant in the tweet, directing me to a spokesperson. Grim said he hadn’t noticed the reply when she sent it, and he didn’t speak with her for the first time until March 8, almost a week later. </p>
<div id="7RerwQ">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Yup. Timing... wait for it....tic toc</p>— taratweets ( Alexandra Tara Reade) (@ReadeAlexandra) <a href="https://twitter.com/ReadeAlexandra/status/1235045691073761280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 4, 2020</a>
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<p id="VDDms6">Reade’s supporters on the left see the Democratic establishment’s response to her accusation as hypocritical, particularly compared to how party leaders rallied around Christine Blasey Ford when <a href="https://www.vox.com/explainers/2018/9/27/17909782/brett-kavanaugh-christine-ford-supreme-court-senate-sexual-assault-testimony">she testified</a> in the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings. In Ford’s case, there was near-universal support for her. Critics on the left say that Democrats should stand up for Reade, and that the “believe women” rallying cry should apply even when it’s not politically convenient. </p>
<p id="PvDc60">But Democrats have largely lined up behind Biden. Top Barack Obama alumni have said that they <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/01/opinions/biden-tara-reade-allegations-2008-vetting-axelrod/index.html">vetted</a> Biden fully in 2008 and found no evidence of the kind of behavior Reade describes. Rising Democratic star Stacey Abrams recently <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/29/politics/stacey-abrams-joe-biden-tara-reade-cnntv/index.html">said</a>, “I believe Joe Biden.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren <a href="https://www.boston.com/news/coronavirus/2020/05/04/joe-biden-elizabeth-warren-coronavirus-relief">penned</a> an op-ed with Biden. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, seen as a Me Too leader for her push to oust Sen. Al Franken after he was accused of sexual misconduct, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-04/gillibrand-a-metoo-leader-to-headline-biden-for-women-event">headlined</a> an event for Biden this week. </p>
<p id="Idft03">Many liberals have said now and during the Franken saga that the Democratic Party has held itself to a ridiculous standard. Donald Trump has admitted on tape to what Reade accuses Biden of doing and still denies the accounts of <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/6/21/18701283/trump-e-jean-carroll-assault-me-too">more than 20 women</a> who have accused him of sexual misconduct. And given that the goal of beating Trump is paramount this fall, some see dwelling on an accusation that has yet to be definitively proven as a damaging distraction. </p>
<p id="DYMxWU">To Reade, though, none of this is that complicated. </p>
<p id="rifeZA">“My story never changed. I just didn’t come forward with all the details. It’s really simple,” she said to me. “I held back this story because I was afraid of a powerful man.”</p>
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https://www.vox.com/2020/5/7/21248713/tara-reade-joe-biden-sexual-assault-accusationLaura McGann2020-04-20T12:50:00-04:002020-04-20T12:50:00-04:00America doesn’t want another Tea Party
<figure>
<img alt="A protester holds a sign reading “Give me liberty or give me Covid-19” while another sign reads “#End the shutdown.”" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/u930R2-3nUVs0pU2DT_zQrWcVHY=/0x0:4864x3648/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/66678735/AP_20110711387213.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Demonstrators begin to gather at a protest opposing Washington state’s stay-home order in Olympia, on April 19. | Elaine Thompson/AP</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Don’t let Fox News fool you. 81 percent of Americans do not share the views of anti-quarantine protesters.</p> <p id="4sShpf">Don’t be fooled by Fox News, Donald Trump, or the same type of groups that produced the Tea Party a decade ago: The protesters taking to the streets against social distancing are a small minority of Americans — and their attitudes represent a fraction of public opinion. </p>
<p id="7IrwCU">In fact, America has done something remarkable in this moment: It has united.</p>
<p id="caoDwh">Last week, 81 percent of Americans told pollsters for a <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/15/poll-dont-stop-social-distancing-coronavirus-spread-187290">Politico/Morning Consult poll</a> that the country “should continue to social distance for as long as is needed to curb the spread of coronavirus, even if it means continued damage to the economy.” </p>
<p id="ZEWezW">Let me repeat that: 81 percent of Americans <em>agree</em>. That’s an astounding figure. </p>
<p id="B6MNcP"><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/poll-six-10-support-keeping-stay-home-restrictions-fight-coronavirus-n1187011">An NBC poll</a> found a lower rate at 60 percent, but still a solid majority. Large majorities of Democrats and independents are more concerned about the virus than the economy, as are about half of Republicans.</p>
<p id="1DEElV">This consensus is striking given that Americans live in an era when they’re divided along party lines on everything from <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/9/7/12811316/partisan-polarization-climate-change">climate change</a> to the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/11/upshot/trump-nfl-polarization.html">NFL</a>.</p>
<p id="CJj43F">But continued vigilance is required. Trump will keep trying to divide Americans ahead of the election this fall. Fox will continue to air images that make the anti-social-distancing movement look mainstream. Well-funded conservative groups will gin up more events. </p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5lWOyUFj9qMdZe1XV_Pe2FxQV_8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19912836/GettyImages_1210398913.jpg">
<cite>Jeremy Hogan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>Protesters demonstrate against what they call “government overreach” in response to the coronavirus, in front of Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb’s mansion in Indianapolis, on April 18.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p id="ygdsZm">This is the same playbook that worked in 2009 when the conservative machine sparked the Tea Party, which shaped American policy for a decade. Tea Party politics delayed the recovery from<strong> </strong>the Great Recession, hobbled attempts to expand health care coverage that is desperately needed right now, and left the <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/us-emergency-medical-stockpile-funding-unprepared-coronavirus">medical-supply stockpile</a> under-funded, putting medical providers in grave danger as they fight to save the lives of Covid-19 patients. </p>
<p id="PlPE1h">The stakes are too high to fall for the same pantomime. Social-distancing supporters are the dominant movement. And the country needs to remember it. </p>
<h3 id="xXI8IK">Trump and Fox are putting lives at stake </h3>
<p id="WAQqtB">Trump’s approach to the pandemic has been to crow about his administration’s imaginary successes while <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/3/25/21193803/trump-to-governors-coronavirus-help-ventilators-cuomo">blaming</a> governors for everything that’s gone wrong. </p>
<p id="YUPmN4">On Friday, he escalated his message, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/trump-tweets-praise-right-wing-protests-against-social-distancing-measures">endorsing</a> the anti-stay-at-home protests cropping up across the country — specifically the protests in battleground states run by Democratic governors. </p>
<p id="xe97TC">Moments after Fox News aired a segment on the rallies, Trump <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/trump-tweets-praise-right-wing-protests-against-social-distancing-measures">tweeted</a> their rally cry against their governors: “LIBERATE.” </p>
<div id="gaDZ1K">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="es" dir="ltr">LIBERATE MICHIGAN!</p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1251169217531056130?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 17, 2020</a>
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<p id="WNJKi3">Trump has <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/04/trumps-lies-about-coronavirus/608647/">peddled dangerous misinformation</a> about the virus since the start. He’s undermined policies encouraged by the CDC (he told Americans they should wear masks outside but quickly added that<strong> </strong><a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/4/3/21202792/coronavirus-masks-n95-trump-white-house-cdc-ppe-shortage">he doesn’t plan to</a>). This endorsement is perhaps the most dangerous thing he’s said. </p>
<p id="c8zhIV">There’s a lot that’s not yet known about Covid-19, but we do know that gatherings spread the virus. Again and again, when groups get together, <a href="https://www.mlive.com/coronavirus/2020/04/map-shows-impact-florida-spring-break-goers-had-in-spreading-coronavirus-across-us.html">attendees get sick</a>. <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-03-29/coronavirus-choir-outbreak">Some have died</a>. And we don’t know the extent to which they’ve spread it to others, though we know it’s a terribly contagious virus.</p>
<p id="dNcS7t">We also know that Americans are actually doing a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-14/stay-home-during-outbreak-americans-stick-to-social-distancing">good job social distancing</a>, which health experts are crediting with a more optimistic outlook on the number of Americans who will die from the virus than initially feared. </p>
<p id="SytPnE">But Fox News is trying to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/protesters-lawmakers-plan-to-demonstrate-in-pennsylvania">convince</a> Americans that there’s a <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/protests-rallies-states-call-for-end-coronavirus-stay-at-home-orders">groundswell</a> of <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/protesters-on-rallies-across-us-call-for-end-to-coronavirus-stay-at-home-orders">opposition</a> to these important measures, attempting to make small rallies look big and fringe attitudes look mainstream. </p>
<p id="kL8JOm">On air, they’ve displayed images that make the protests seem significant. A first glance at the map below makes it look like a huge number of rallies have already happened, but they haven’t. It’s a double-whammy: The movement looks large and Fox encourages viewers to join. </p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/p8Q0JpzIHKVR1QurTwQToeoDTNU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19912589/Screen_Shot_2020_04_20_at_8.41.39_AM.png">
<cite>Fox News</cite>
<figcaption>Fox News aired a map of upcoming anti-quarantine rallies. </figcaption>
</figure>
<p id="BlOX31">The same images were used in the early days of the Tea Party, when Fox trumped up the rallies, describing them as part of a “revolution” and urging viewers to join.</p>
<figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Television anchor appears in front of graphics supporting the Tea Party." data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/uYkQhVqveLHoNQ00jbtRRav_FM0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19912598/Screen_Shot_2020_04_20_at_8.46.44_AM.png">
<cite>Fox News</cite>
<figcaption>Fox News encouraged viewers to join the Tea Party.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p id="3OeFaC">Conservative groups are playing an important part, too. Three pro-gun groups are behind the largest Facebook group <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/04/19/pro-gun-activists-using-facebook-groups-push-anti-quarantine-protests/">encouraging</a> the protests, according to an investigation by the Washington Post. </p>
<p id="FUf7O4">In Michigan, a group funded by <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/salvadorhernandez/coronavirus-quarantine-protests-facebook-groups">Trump ally Education Secretary Betsy DeVos</a> helped get out the word.</p>
<p id="ZwvMuE">And the same Tea Party groups that were successful a decade ago are eager to <a href="https://twitter.com/FreedomWorks/status/1251212114150244352?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet">join in</a>. </p>
<h3 id="dk9NJG">Trump needs to divide people to win </h3>
<p id="Uftdi8">Trump won in 2016 in part because of his success with rural white voters in states Barack Obama won and he’s ratcheting up his strategy to do it again. </p>
<p id="SbR93R">The clearest example is in Michigan, where Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s in-state <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/490825-governors-win-high-marks-for-coronavirus-response-outpacing-trump">popularity has soared</a> to 15 percent higher than Trump’s. Nationally, her profile is on the rise. Her name is being floated as a possible vice presidential pick. </p>
<p id="Fyv8n0">Whitmer has become a target of Trump’s, starting weeks ago and up until protests hit her state last week. </p>
<p id="1dGmtJ">“We’ve had a big problem with the young, a woman governor,” Trump said in an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/us/politics/trump-women-coronavirus.html">interview</a> with Sean Hannity. “You know who I’m talking about, from Michigan.” Trump dismissed Whitmer’s requests for the federal government to provide more medical equipment to her state and said their interactions had “not been pleasant.”</p>
<p id="5mh0Os">Last week, conservative groups in Michigan <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/4/16/21222471/michigan-protests-coronavirus-stay-at-home-extension">encouraged</a> residents to drive to Lansing and snarl traffic in opposition to Whitmer’s response to Covid-19. Michigan has been hit harder than most other states during the pandemic. It’s the tenth-largest state by population, but it has seen the third-most deaths.</p>
<p id="n1Ulaz">Whitmer has taken more aggressive steps to combat the spread of the disease than most other governors, including extending a statewide stay-at-home order by two weeks. She also ordered big-box stores like Home Depot to suspend the sale of nonessential items, like gardening supplies and paint, during the extension. </p>
<p id="R3DnWk">Last Wednesday, some protesters in the state capital of Lansing got out of their cars and stood together in a display that quickly turned into a 2016-style rally. Attendees wore MAGA hats, they chanted “lock her up” (referring to Whitmer) and waved pro-Trump signs. </p>
<p id="a3vo3P">Images from the event showed protesters ignoring social-distancing rules. </p>
<div id="RmtUiL">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Almost no masks and no regard for social distancing guidelines outside of the Governor’s Residence. <a href="https://twitter.com/MPRnews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MPRnews</a> <a href="https://t.co/8aMLHSHYzA">pic.twitter.com/8aMLHSHYzA</a></p>— Evan Frost (@efrostee) <a href="https://twitter.com/efrostee/status/1251197546904670208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 17, 2020</a>
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<p id="ZVBXJw">Trump needs the same rural white voters who carried him then to come out for him again. He’s getting them fired up right now. In part, it’s an effective message because rural areas of Michigan have been hit far less hard than blue urban centers like Detroit, where most of the cases and deaths have been concentrated. (Whether it’ll stay that way with protesters risking bringing it back home is an open question.)</p>
<p id="I21wAR">Weeks ago, Trump warned that the cure for the disease can’t be worse than the virus itself. Many economists have since weighed in, arguing that that is a false choice. We can take steps to shore up the economy through actions by the Fed and stimulus packages in Congress while attempting to curb the virus. </p>
<p id="XNGirw">At the same time, there’s no way for the economy to turn back on like a light switch. Covid-19 cases in the US are still on the rise, and most Americans say they wouldn’t go back to normal life even if the rules changed. That’s not a recipe for economic recovery. </p>
<p id="DnHXpw">The most-respected plan is the one Trump’s own administration has set forth. Once deaths and new cases are down for a solid period of time, once testing can track the virus’s spread, the rules can slowly start to change. It’s a cautious approach based on the best evidence available. It’s not about politics. And most Americans don’t want it to be. </p>
<p id="XEmQ4q"></p>
https://www.vox.com/2020/4/20/21225016/protests-stay-at-home-orders-trump-conservative-group-michiganLaura McGann2020-03-11T23:10:00-04:002020-03-11T23:10:00-04:00Trump’s coronavirus speech was laced with xenophobia
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/V2ACxyAXqTg8TB5oVMFvNtgSlJk=/615x0:5536x3691/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/66487976/GettyImages_1206667662.7.jpg" />
<figcaption>Trump’s speeches have long played on xenophobic fears. | Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>World leaders have long linked germs and immigrants to stoke fear in moments of crisis. </p> <p id="I2JEIL">Americans generally expect that when regularly scheduled programming is interrupted to cut to the president sitting in the Oval Office, they will hear an important, sober, and universal message — a message almost always of unity, often a call for shared responsibility and even sacrifice. </p>
<p id="rIORqZ">President Trump just used the powerful symbol of his office to attempt to divide us. </p>
<p id="anddxD">Seated behind his desk in the White House Wednesday, Trump looked into the camera and warned Americans of an enemy who has infiltrated our borders. We are at war, he said, with a “<em>foreign</em> virus.” </p>
<p id="93LK4r">It’s a tactic meant to distract from what his administration has and hasn’t done, in this case to combat the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/1/31/21113178/what-is-coronavirus-symptoms-travel-china-map">coronavirus pandemic</a>. “This is the most aggressive and comprehensive effort to confront a foreign virus in modern history,” Trump said of his administration’s work. </p>
<p id="oujSgq">The pandemic, of course, isn’t a spy. It’s not an infiltrator. It’s a health crisis that’s been long <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/03/07/coronavirus-epidemic-prediction-policy-advice-121172">predicted</a>. The way we’ll fight it is through mechanisms like <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/3/3/21161232/coronavirus-usa-quarantine-isolation-social-distancing">social distancing</a>, a technique that requires clear, direct information so everyone knows it’s important to participate and how to do so. It’s a shared responsibility. We are in this together. </p>
<p id="D5nyB5">That is not the language of the Trump era. Trump rode into office on a message of division, of fear and hate and xenophobia. He announced his campaign in 2015 by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/06/16/theyre-rapists-presidents-trump-campaign-launch-speech-two-years-later-annotated/">smearing Mexicans</a>. Even his inaugural address was laced with dark notes. “From this day forward,” he said during his <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/key-points-of-trumps-inaugural-speech-233900">address</a>, “it’s going to be only America first.”<strong> </strong>Xenophobia isn’t a bug in the system for him; it’s a feature. </p>
<p id="WSZ9CW">Throughout his time in office, again and again, he’s rallied his supporters through fear of outsiders — whether it was fear of travelers from Muslim-majority countries or asylum seekers at the US-Mexico border. He’s portrayed foreigners as filthy and derided others’ homelands as “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/01/shithole-countries/580054/">shithole countries</a>.” </p>
<p id="hLTRTh">Now, faced with explaining his government’s response to an outbreak that’s getting worse, he’s relying on the same tropes. </p>
<p id="XFVyCL">On Wednesday night, when he should have been calling on Americans to come together, he attempted to make us afraid of all of Europe. “To keep new cases from entering our shores, we will be suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days,” Trump said (excluding the UK for some reason). </p>
<aside id="m371uY"><div data-anthem-component="readmore" data-anthem-component-data='{"stories":[{"title":"What Trump actually proposed in his coronavirus speech","url":"https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/3/11/21175953/trump-coronavirus-speech-response-policies"}]}'></div></aside><p id="x3UWkr">This isn’t the first time in history a leader has stoked fears among the public by linking outsiders to germs, of course. It’s been part of many dark chapters in world history. Researchers have documented the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2690128/">repeated, often unfounded fears of connections</a> between germs and immigrants throughout the 20th century. In a moment of crisis, it’s particularly jarring and dangerous. </p>
<p id="0JJ7Km">In this case, though perhaps predictable, it is especially dubious.</p>
<p id="nQvDp5">Experts pointed out that full-scale travel bans haven’t been effective. Italy, the hardest-hit country in Europe, was the first European country to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-10/italy-s-hopes-for-closer-china-ties-hit-by-virus-flight-ban-rift">ban travel to and from China</a>, where the outbreak originated, and it didn’t help. </p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Trump plans travel restrictions to Europe <a href="https://twitter.com/StateDept?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@StateDept</a> level 3 warning. How enforced? Quarantine returning citizens? <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> conflates closed border & <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/COVID19?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#COVID19</a> response To be clear, germs don't respect borders. Most of Europe has = or < cases than US. Travel bans won't make US safer</p>— Lawrence Gostin (@LawrenceGostin) <a href="https://twitter.com/LawrenceGostin/status/1237909204117135363?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 12, 2020</a>
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<p id="Rofd89">And Trump’s big announcement ignores the fact that the virus is already in the United States, spreading locally. The big threat isn’t the virus coming to the United States. It’s already here. </p>
<aside id="tqjL7S"><div data-anthem-component="readmore" data-anthem-component-data='{"stories":[{"title":"The evidence on travel bans for diseases like coronavirus is clear: They don’t work ","url":"https://www.vox.com/2020/1/23/21078325/wuhan-china-coronavirus-travel-ban"}]}'></div></aside><p id="8n1OrM">“A large number of new clusters in the United States were seeded by travelers from Europe,” Trump said — without explaining how the virus is spreading now or even highlighting some of the best science-based measures to test for it or stop it from spreading. </p>
<p id="UQNRV8">Medical experts reacted critically to Trump’s ban by pointing out that it ignores the work that really needs to be done, such as testing to assess the full scale of the crisis and mass communication with the public about how to prevent the spread. </p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">The US President has banned all travel from Europe for 30 days, excluding UK.<br><br>This is a distraction:<br>- US has local transmission already<br>- we’re struggling to even conduct surveillance to know our burden<br>- ignores vital mitigation steps we know we need to do now<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/COVID19?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#COVID19</a></p>— Dr Alexandra Phelan (@alexandraphelan) <a href="https://twitter.com/alexandraphelan/status/1237911129617301504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 12, 2020</a>
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<p id="jf0TUL">Trump did tell Americans to cover their mouths and noses when they cough or sneeze. He did finally say it was best to stay home if you are sick. </p>
<p id="Gw4Uta">But his message wasn’t the sober, direct statement Americans might expect from the president in the Oval Office. More worrisome, maybe a xenophobic speech designed to distract is what we we actually should have expected. </p>
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https://www.vox.com/2020/3/11/21175987/trump-travel-ban-europe-coronavirus-speechLaura McGann2020-03-05T14:00:00-05:002020-03-05T14:00:00-05:00Elizabeth Warren’s political legacy should include destroying Mike Bloomberg and Chris Matthews
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<figcaption>Sen. Elizabeth Warren slammed Mike Bloomberg in Las Vegas debate with this memorable opener: “I’d like to talk about who we’re running against: a billionaire who calls women ‘fat broads’ and ‘horse-faced lesbians. And no, I’m not talking about Donald Trump.” | Mark Ralston/AFP via Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>On her way down, she took them with her. </p> <p id="AzrEZK"><a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/3/5/21120368/elizabeth-warren-drops-out-2020-race-bernie-sanders-women">Sen. Elizabeth Warren is dropping out</a> of the presidential race, leaving two white men to duke it out for the Democratic nomination and then take on the white man sitting in the Oval Office. </p>
<p id="C5QWLO">It’s a disappointing turn of events for Democrats who are proud of recent historic firsts — electing America’s first black president and then electing a woman as a major party’s nominee in 2016. The 2020 Democratic field started out diverse but winnowed over time until Warren was the only candidate standing who wasn’t a white man. </p>
<p id="MRO3JR">And while there’s plenty to unpack about the role gender and race played in this year’s contest, Warren can at least have some modicum of satisfaction that as she went down, she took Mike Bloomberg and Chris Matthews with her.</p>
<aside id="FCz0ov"><div data-anthem-component="readmore" data-anthem-component-data='{"stories":[{"title":"What Elizabeth Warren’s loss says about us","url":"https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/3/5/21120368/elizabeth-warren-drops-out-2020-race-bernie-sanders-women"}]}'></div></aside><p id="pUP4Gd">Warren eviscerated Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor, twice on primary debate stages, going after him for his treatment of female employees at his company, Bloomberg LP, in a stunningly effective assault. And she knows it. </p>
<p id="6HkMpc">“In this campaign, we have been willing to fight, and, when necessary, we left plenty of blood and teeth on the floor,” Warren said in a press call announcing her departure from the race. “And I can think of one billionaire who has been denied the chance to buy this election.”</p>
<p id="bJB6jg">She appeared on MSNBC after one of the debates to talk about Bloomberg’s history and ended up taking a prominent network figure, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/3/3/21162866/chris-matthews-retires-msnbc-misogyny">Chris Matthews</a>, to task in a way feminists had wanted to see for years. The exchange went viral and inspired women to speak up about his behavior. He was gone from MSNBC just days later.</p>
<h3 id="7iP6Vn">Warren destroyed Bloomberg at his first debate (NDA edition)</h3>
<p id="c0Yd8f">Mike Bloomberg spent roughly $400 million on television ads before he stepped onto a debate stage. When he finally did, Warren made him wish he hadn’t. </p>
<p id="fp00Aj">In a series of stunning confrontations, Warren forced Bloomberg to contend with his alleged history of mistreating women — including signing nondisclosure agreements with former female employees who say he harassed or discriminated against them. </p>
<p id="awEjIt">“The mayor has to stand on his record. And what we need to know is what is lurking out there. He has gotten some number of women — maybe dozens, who knows — to sign nondisclosure agreements for gender discrimination in the workplace,” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LqywKzY6e4">Warren began</a>, winding up before landing the punch: “So, Mr. Mayor, are you willing to release all those women from those nondisclosure agreements so we can hear their side of the story?” </p>
<p id="WhAS0F">Bloomberg attempted to play down the matter. “We have a very few nondisclosure agreements,” he said. </p>
<p id="zRg1dS">“How many is that?” Warren interjected. </p>
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<cite>Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>Bloomberg and Warren at the Las Vegas debate, the first he appeared in, on February 19.</figcaption>
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<p id="q4QPMe">“None of them accused me of anything other than maybe they didn’t like a joke I told,” Bloomberg went on, not answering Warren’s question but somehow making things worse for himself anyway. (His jokes were really funny, by the way, like saying of female employees: <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/politics/michael-bloomberg-women/">“I’d f--- that in a second</a>,” according to a lawsuit.) </p>
<p id="QcHLc6">Warren looked at the crowd knowingly, which, by this point, was squarely on her side. Bloomberg was done. </p>
<p id="Gy4dfX">He stammered through an argument about how the women “decided they wanted to keep it quiet for everybody’s interest. They signed the agreements, and that’s what we are going to live with.” </p>
<p id="iEY2mB">Warren had won. Still, she dug the knife in deeper, just to be sure: “This is not just a question of the mayor’s character,” she concluded. “This is also a question about electability. We are not going to beat Donald Trump with a man who has who-knows-how-many nondisclosure agreements and the drip, drip, drip of stories of women saying they have been harassed and discriminated against. That’s not what we do as Democrats.” </p>
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<p id="VRrGsx">Then the next day, Warren did some epic trolling. Warren, a lawyer and former Harvard Law professor, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elizabeth-warren-contract-michael-bloomberg-release-people-ndas-2020-2">wrote up a contract for Bloomberg</a> to use to allow the women involved in the NDAs to be released from the agreement. </p>
<p id="GzPvsQ">Amazingly, the Bloomberg campaign responded by actually following through — for three women. They offered to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/02/21/808280695/bloomberg-women-who-made-complaints-about-comments-can-now-seek-nda-releases">release those three</a> women from their NDAs. But we still don’t know how Bloomberg’s lawyers selected just these three cases, how many other women remain bound by NDAs, or what the specific allegations are — about him and about the company culture he created. Also, we don’t know if he’d fight what comes out in public, or in court.</p>
<p id="dSTPH2">It was an attempt at atonement, but a failed one.<strong> </strong>And after his disastrous appearance, Bloomberg started <a href="https://morningconsult.com/2020/02/21/michael-bloomberg-polling-post-debate-las-vegas/">sinking in the polls</a>.</p>
<h3 id="kl6FVk">Warren destroyed Bloomberg at his second debate (pregnancy edition)</h3>
<p id="9PGxSY">Two weeks after laying into Bloomberg during his first debate appearance, Warren went back at him. This time she started out telling a story she’s told before about losing her job as a special needs teacher when the principal discovered she was pregnant. The kicker this time, though, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/25/us/politics/michael-bloomberg-pregnancy-employee.html">was different</a>. “At least I didn’t have a boss who said to me, ‘Kill it,’ the way that Mayor Bloomberg is alleged to have said to one of his pregnant employees,”</p>
<p id="4AsTQI">Bloomberg responded, “I never said that.”</p>
<p id="HRscNE">When moderator Gayle King asked Warren what the evidence was for the allegation, Warren backed the accuser and said: “her words.” </p>
<p id="EbQ9zV">Warren was referencing an allegation made by Sekiko Sakai Garrison, a former employee at Bloomberg LP. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/politics/michael-bloomberg-women/">In a 1998 lawsuit</a>, Garrison said that when she told Bloomberg she was pregnant, he told her to “kill it.” Garrison has never changed her story. </p>
<p id="CNFJr5">(Warren didn’t mention, it, but there is another witness to the incident. In a recent <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/politics/michael-bloomberg-women/">Washington Post article</a>, another former Bloomberg employee, David Zielenziger, said he heard Bloomberg make the comment. He told the Post he thought Bloomberg’s behavior toward Garrison was “outrageous,” adding, “I understood why she took offense.”)</p>
<p id="6ZT7M1">A few days later, on Super Tuesday, Bloomberg discovered that $400 million can’t undo two minutes in the ring with Warren. </p>
<h3 id="NkcULn">Chris Matthews spiraled along with Bloomberg </h3>
<p id="xwRIdV">On the night Warren took Bloomberg to task over the “kill it” saga, <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/media/485217-chris-matthews-under-fire-after-pressing-warren-on-bloomberg-allegation">she appeared on MSNBC</a>, where she went on to knock down another man who has a long documented history of making sexist comments: <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/3/3/21162866/chris-matthews-retires-msnbc-misogyny">Chris Matthews</a>. </p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Chris Matthews demands to know why Warren believes the woman who accused Bloomberg of telling her to "kill" her unborn child: "You’re confident of your accusation?" <a href="https://t.co/sroztgr9kB">pic.twitter.com/sroztgr9kB</a></p>— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/TPMLiveWire/status/1232660284105469953?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 26, 2020</a>
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<p id="harkVB">Matthews was puzzled why Warren would believe that Bloomberg would make such a terrible comment to a pregnant employee. </p>
<p id="EYq4F7">“A pregnant employee sure said he did,” Warren replied. “Why shouldn’t I believe her?”</p>
<p id="2DPKrM">Matthews asked Warren if she believed Bloomberg was lying and Warren held firm: “I believe the woman, which means he’s not telling the truth.”</p>
<p id="o7LgnW">“Why would he lie?” Matthews responded, a question that has a pretty obvious answer.</p>
<p id="d549yI">“Why would she lie?” Warren fired back.</p>
<p id="EIsMC4">Matthews critics have been frustrated by the attitudes he’s displayed on air, unchallenged, for years. The moment with Warren felt different. Suddenly, the tide turned. </p>
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<cite>Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>Sen. Elizabeth Warren with then-MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews after the first Democratic primary debate on June 26, 2019.</figcaption>
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<p id="PAxkuY">Journalist Laura Bassett followed up on the viral moment with a piece in GQ titled <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/chris-matthews-experience">“Like Warren, I had my own sexist run-in with Chris Matthews,”</a> where she detailed creepy comments he made to her in the MSNBC green room. The piece, likewise, went viral, and other women chimed in, sharing their own accounts of Matthews’s attitudes. </p>
<p id="Y3EuiU">By Monday night, Matthews stepped down as the anchor of <em>Hardball</em>. </p>
<p id="lJdGXP">Matthews was a major player in shaping American political journalism for a generation, including how we view the intersection of gender and politics. </p>
<p id="iZcCdY">He got away with demeaning female guests for years. They were on his show to boost their profile and their careers, not to get in fights with him about sexism (which certainly wouldn’t get them invited back). So he got away with diminishing them by commenting on their looks, a <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/chris-matthews/msnbc-turned-blind-eye-chris-matthews-sexist-misogynistic-and-offensive-behavior">signal to the audience</a> that the conduct is okay. </p>
<p id="nhReRH">Warren’s appearance was different, though. Not only did she not give a damn what Matthews thought of her, showing she didn’t care was the whole point. She was running against Bloomberg on the case that he is wrong. She <em>wanted</em> to tell Matthews he was wrong. </p>
<p id="dbuAkb">Warren stepped down from the presidential race on Thursday. But she didn’t back down from sexism, even at the very end. She won’t be the first woman to serve as president, but her contributions to confronting sexism on the trail are a worthy piece of her legacy. </p>
https://www.vox.com/2020/3/5/21166278/elizabeth-warren-drop-out-mike-bloomberg-chris-matthewsLaura McGann2020-03-03T15:54:16-05:002020-03-03T15:54:16-05:00Chris Matthews’s misogyny shaped political journalism for a generation
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<figcaption>Chris Matthews received criticism for his interview with Sen. Elizabeth Warren following the ninth Democratic primary debate where he pressed her on her line of questioning toward Mike Bloomberg and his treatment of women. | Bridget Bennett/AFP via Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>Let’s not lionize a journalist who demeaned women on air and in office.</p> <p id="0XcRsS">Since Chris Matthews announced his retirement from MSNBC Monday night, his friends and colleagues are praising the now-former <em>Hardball</em> host as a lion of the field of political journalism, as if he were leaving the network for a reason other than on-air sexism. </p>
<p id="IoWHjQ">“Chris Matthews is a giant. He’s a legend; it’s been an honor for me to work with him,” <a href="https://e.newsletters.cnn.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">MSNBC journalist Steve Kornacki said</a> on air after Matthews announced he was stepping down. </p>
<p id="u6cbbD"><em>Morning Joe</em> host Mika Brzezinski agreed: </p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Thank you <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveKornacki?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SteveKornacki</a> for saying everything I was thinking ..<br>I am so sad about <a href="https://twitter.com/HardballChris?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@HardballChris</a></p>— Mika Brzezinski (@morningmika) <a href="https://twitter.com/morningmika/status/1234645092071329792?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 3, 2020</a>
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<p id="4XIdHk">Other guests and colleagues joined in their support of Matthews, including former <a href="https://twitter.com/donnabrazile/status/1234694158616612865?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1234694158616612865&ref_url=about%3Asrcdoc">Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile</a>, George W. Bush’s communications director and now MSNBC anchor <a href="https://twitter.com/NicolleDWallace/status/1234691338395930630?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1234691338395930630&ref_url=about%3Asrcdoc">Nicolle Wallace</a>, and MSNBC host <a href="https://twitter.com/mitchellreports/status/1234733234430324737?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1234733234430324737&ref_url=about%3Asrcdoc">Andrea Mitchell</a>. </p>
<p id="1W0MWc">But this was no ordinary retirement. CNN media writer Brian Stelter confirms that Matthews <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/02/media/chris-matthews-retires-msnbc/index.html?utm_term=15832131330699c80a7d1d372&utm_source=Reliable+Sources+-+March+2%2C+2020&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=183003_1583213133072&bt_ee=PogJbh9Xb9JauGtEQtcUTetaTrNtHZVI6EasJeonjlM%2BtnWPpMJV9MrLelmVm23m&bt_ts=1583213133072">preempted being fired</a> by departing voluntarily. The proximate cause was a string of recent controversies, including making an on-air comparison between Sen. Bernie Sanders (who is Jewish) and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/24/business/media/chris-matthews-bernie-sanders-apology.html">the Nazi advance on Europe</a>, getting into an embarrassing<a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/media/485217-chris-matthews-under-fire-after-pressing-warren-on-bloomberg-allegation"> back-and-forth</a> with Sen. Elizabeth Warren over Mike Bloomberg’s history of sexist comments, and then finding himself the <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/chris-matthews-experience">subject of a piece in GQ</a> by journalist Laura Bassett, who described how he made creepy, suggestive comments to her in the MSNBC green room — an experience many women on Twitter said they shared. </p>
<p id="997vhO">All these instances are part of a pattern with Matthews, particularly those related to gender. For years, he’s used his daily televised platform to undermine women — sizing up his female guests’ looks and belittling politicians like <a href="https://jezebel.com/chris-matthews-has-a-sexist-history-with-hillary-clinto-345237">Hillary Clinton</a>, whom he’s called <a href="https://jezebel.com/chris-matthews-has-a-sexist-history-with-hillary-clinto-345237">“witchy,” “anti-male,” and “uppity”</a> over the years. </p>
<p id="mLcAay">Matthews is not accused of criminal behavior like other men in his field who’ve been called to task in the Me Too era. But he shares a set of sexist attitudes that have <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/10/27/16561386/wieseltier-halperin-journalism-sexual-harassment">profoundly shaped political journalism</a> and attitudes that are just beginning to be confronted. </p>
<p id="gzjSk7">Matthews’s supporters are right that he was a giant in political journalism. They are right that he left a mark on how we understand politics. But his departure isn’t a loss. It’s an opportunity to rethink how we should and should not cover politics and power. </p>
<h3 id="Q2cQdY">Matthews has made misogynistic remarks on TV for many years </h3>
<p id="WLOiGc">The hallmark of Matthews’s on-air behavior over the years was to diminish the credibility of a female guest by commenting on her looks. During his sign-off Monday night, Matthews offered this apology: </p>
<blockquote><p id="YtD3BD">Compliments on a woman’s appearance that some men, including me, might have once incorrectly thought were okay were never okay. Not then and certainly not today, and for making such comments in the past, I’m sorry. </p></blockquote>
<p id="sgXfyn">Matthews’s poor treatment of his female guests is well-known: Media Matters has <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/chris-matthews/msnbc-turned-blind-eye-chris-matthews-sexist-misogynistic-and-offensive-behavior">tracked his conduct for years</a>. </p>
<p id="Eqb26K">One particularly egregious example comes from 2007. Amid a turbulent moment for the economy, Matthews had on respected financial journalist Erin Burnett of CNBC. Instead of treating her as a serious guest, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKBDOLdU-Ug&feature=youtu.be">he toyed with her and demeaned her</a>: </p>
<p id="PK9SVO">“Could you get a little closer to the camera?” Matthews said to Burnett. “My — what is it?” Burnett asked, seeming to think something was wrong with the equipment. Matthews then said: “Come on in closer. No, come in — come in further — come in closer. Really close.” As Burnett adjusted, he said: “Just kidding! You look great! Anyway, thanks, Erin, it’s great to — look at that look. You’re great.” </p>
<p id="8kwAQc">He concluded “you’re a knockout.” </p>
<div id="3HAKhE"><div style="left: 0; width: 100%; height: 0; position: relative; padding-bottom: 75%;"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xKBDOLdU-Ug?rel=0" style="border: 0; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute;" allowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" allow="encrypted-media; accelerometer; gyroscope; picture-in-picture"></iframe></div></div>
<p id="CM2sb4">In the video Burnett looks a bit annoyed, but she mostly smiles through the ordeal. She’s a professional and there to advance her career, not to make an enemy out of Matthews. But by allowing these types of scenarios to play out again and again, MSNBC was telling TV viewers that this behavior was okay.</p>
<p id="qk73wF">There are <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/chris-matthews/matthews-sexist-displays-go-beyond-clinton">many</a>, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/chris-matthews/chris-matthews-misogyny-pays">many</a> examples of similar behavior by Matthews. Media Matters has <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/chris-matthews/women-matthews-administers-chris-matthews-test">documented him commenting</a> on the looks of many women in public life. </p>
<p id="qaxlbo">During a post-debate night panel during the 2008 primary, for example, Matthews <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/msnbc-democratic-debate-coverage-rife-sexist-stereotypes">responded</a> to MSNBC host Joe Scarborough’s point about Clinton’s Iraq War vote problem among the Democratic base by changing the subject. </p>
<p id="fvVz6o">“The cosmetics tonight are very important,” Matthews said. “First of all, her pearls, Grace Kelly. Dynamite. The pearls were great!” </p>
<p id="ApxwVo">In the next breath, he moved on to Michelle Obama: </p>
<p id="Gkqsj6">“Whatever you say about [Barack] Obama, his wife looked perfect! Perfect for the occasion. Perfect-looking wife. She had the pearls as well. Another Grace Kelly, well turned out, very dignified, not dignified, attractive, classy.”</p>
<p id="dNn49l">He uses the same language with conservative women. Here’s how he spoke to Laura Ingraham, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/chris-matthews/women-matthews-administers-chris-matthews-test">according to Media Matters</a>: </p>
<blockquote><p id="Z1Bowa">On the September 12, 2007, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/research/2007/09/13/rosen-asserted-nobody-has-successfully-challeng/141391">edition</a> of <em>Hardball</em>, Matthews began an interview with right-wing radio host Laura Ingraham by stating: “You are — I’m not allowed to say this, but I’ll say it — you’re beautiful and you’re smart. And you’ve got a huge radio audience.” When the interview ended, Matthews asked: “Can I sing your praises?” adding, “I get in trouble for this, but you’re great looking, obviously. You’re one of the gods’ gifts to men in this country. But also, you are a hell of a writer.”</p></blockquote>
<p id="ThBMA6">Repeating these stereotypes over and over contributed to a culture in political journalism that devalues women, that puts their looks before their smarts or intellectual contributions. And doing it on TV just makes it worse — presenting an image to viewers that goes completely unchecked. </p>
<h3 id="84pLfB">Matthews routinely smeared Hillary Clinton </h3>
<p id="arMAYr">Matthews also disparaged female candidates and officeholders. On the night Nancy Pelosi led Democrats to a historic victory in the House in 2006, he pointed out that she would have to go head-to-head with George W. Bush on all kinds of policies. “How does she do it without screaming? How does she do it without becoming grating?” he <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/chris-matthews/matthews-sexist-displays-go-beyond-clinton">wondered</a>. </p>
<p id="D0guQw">Hillary Clinton was a continual target.</p>
<p id="f9k5Zv">He once pinched her cheek after an interview. </p>
<div id="GbYUHh"><div style="left: 0; width: 100%; height: 0; position: relative; padding-bottom: 75%;"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gjsqDrdvIPw?rel=0" style="border: 0; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute;" allowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" allow="encrypted-media; accelerometer; gyroscope; picture-in-picture"></iframe></div></div>
<p id="Gj1q7m">In 2006, Matthews attempted to compliment Clinton, saying, “she was giving a campaign barnburner speech, which is harder to give for a woman; it can grate on some men when they listen to it — <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/msnbc/ignoring-his-previous-comments-matthews-claimed-men-dont-knock-hillary#20070328">fingernails on a blackboard, perhaps</a>.”</p>
<p id="pLSK0A">Before an interview during the 2016 Democratic primary, footage posted by The Cut captures Matthews making a joke about drugging her with a “<a href="https://www.thecut.com/2018/01/chris-matthews-bill-cosby-pill-hillary-clinton-interview.html?utm_campaign=nym&utm_source=tw&utm_medium=s1">Bill Cosby pill</a>,” shocking his staff: </p>
<blockquote><p id="1FAFXd">Network footage obtained by the Cut shows Matthews, during the interview setup, making a couple of “jokes” about Clinton. He asks, “Can I have some of the queen’s waters? Precious waters?” And then, as he waits for the water, he adds, “Where’s that Bill Cosby pill I brought with me?” Matthews then laughs, delighted with the line, for an extended moment, as the staffers around him react with disbelief, clearly uncomfortable</p></blockquote>
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<p id="RD2fSX">Clinton’s loss in 2016 was so narrow that it’s difficult to point to any single issue as the reason she lost. But it’s nonetheless true that Clinton had to deal with media figures who were eager to embrace old, sexist tropes that signal to their audiences what leadership doesn’t look like. </p>
<p id="NLjMRL">In the Me Too era, women have called out serial harassers <a href="https://www.vox.com/first-person/2017/11/9/16624588/new-republic-harassment">Leon Wieseltier</a>, the influential culture editor of the New Republic; and <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/10/26/16552672/mark-halperin-msnbc-nbc-abc-news-harassment-allegations">Mark Halperin,</a> the former head of ABC Politics and co-author of the best-selling <em>Game Change</em> series. Halperin pioneered a style of politics-as-sports journalism embraced by Matthews and other cable news hosts. These men claimed they were looking down on politics from the stands, objectively assessing the plays of the game. </p>
<p id="rJhoad">But we are starting to see the reality of this “objectivity.” Halperin <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/15/us/politics/donald-trump-women.html">dismissed</a> sexual assault allegations against Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign. Matthews got into a fight last week with Warren over whether to believe a <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/2/25/21153707/mike-bloomberg-kill-it-warren-democratic-debate">well-supported claim</a> by a former Bloomberg employee that he told her to end her pregnancy. Matthews <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/02/elizabeth-warren-chris-matthews-msnbc-debate-interview-bloomberg.html">became indignant with Warren</a>, essentially calling the accuser a liar: </p>
<p id="8AJkrE">“Do you believe that the former mayor of New York said that to a pregnant employee?” Matthews said to Warren. “You believe he’s that kind of person who did that? You believe he’s lying? You’re confident of your accusation?”</p>
<p id="lrZYEE">Warren is confident of her accusation. And unlike for so many years when women felt they couldn’t confront Matthews, Warren did. Then something else happened — journalist Laura Bassett said “me too,”<a href="https://www.gq.com/story/chris-matthews-experience"> publishing a scathing account of Matthews’s green room behavior</a>. Then Bassett’s Twitter replies lit up with more “me too” accounts of Matthews’s conduct. </p>
<p id="Z5YkS0">The dynamic that forced Burnett and others to smile through Matthews’s indignities shifted under his feet this week — a change for the better for political journalism and for our culture as a whole. Perhaps Matthews’s friends who are lauding him as a great American journalist should look to the women who stood up for truth as the real heroes of this story. </p>
https://www.vox.com/2020/3/3/21162866/chris-matthews-retires-msnbc-misogynyLaura McGann2020-02-14T11:40:00-05:002020-02-14T11:40:00-05:00It’s time for Hillary to say “I’m with her”
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<figcaption>Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivers a keynote speech during the American Federation of Teachers Shanker Institute Defense of Democracy Forum at George Washington University on September 17, 2019, in Washington, DC. | Zach Gibson/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>Clinton needs to stop complaining about Sanders and endorse the woman who can beat him and Trump.</p> <p id="Cc7JWu">As a trailblazing woman in public life, a lot has been asked of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the past four decades. She’s been forced to play the role of supportive wife and smile through humiliation. She’s been held to a higher standard than most men in office, enduring marathon sessions in front of hostile congressional panels for dubious reasons. She’s had to hide her ambitions while she ran for office, then turn around and give a gracious concession speech after a man (who won on sexist and racist tropes) got to be president despite earning fewer votes. </p>
<p id="OgrFy7">Through all the indignities that come with being a woman in politics, she’s put her principles and her party first. It’s understandable that Clinton might have had enough, that she might think she has nothing left to give to the cause of women’s rights as human rights, or that she can’t help but take one more whack at the highest glass ceiling left for women in America. </p>
<p id="iZoMAB">But if she believes what she’s been saying about Sen. Bernie Sanders, she needs to convince herself she’s wrong. Instead of attacking Sanders, as personally satisfying as that might be, she needs to be bigger. She needs to stand with Sen. Amy Klobuchar. </p>
<h3 id="rNeeTo">Hillary Clinton doesn’t like Bernie Sanders </h3>
<p id="xe3oCt">It’s no secret: Clinton is not a Bernie fan. </p>
<p id="lhR2xL">“Nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him, he got nothing done. He was a career politician,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/21/us/politics/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur">Clinton said in an interview</a> for a documentary that aired in January. “It’s all just baloney, and I feel so bad that people got sucked into it.” </p>
<p id="ySq3Vm">Clinton also declined to say in the interview if she’d endorse Sanders if he were to win the nomination. Some Democrats criticized Clinton for the broadside during primary season, which isn’t the best time to hit someone on your own team. </p>
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<figcaption>Then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders sit together during a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on November 3, 2016.</figcaption>
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<p id="kGY1N5">Nonetheless, Clinton expanded on her points a few weeks later, explaining how she doesn’t approve of Sanders’s approach to policy — talking big but offering few details on how to make his ideas real. </p>
<p id="MNVfvF">“You’ve got to be responsible for what you say, and what you say you’re going to do,” <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/06/politics/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-ellen-moon/index.html">Clinton said recently on <em>The Ellen DeGeneres Show</em></a>, digging into her previous comments. “We need to rebuild trust in our fellow Americans and in our institutions, and if you promise the moon and you can’t deliver the moon, then that’s going to be one more indicator of how, you know, we just can’t trust each other.”</p>
<p id="PPzCFO">Clinton criticized Sanders in 2016 for promising broad reforms without offering much to back up how he’d do it. Meanwhile, she put out exhaustive, detailed policy plans that didn’t garner the same type of headlines as “Medicare-for-all” or “free college.” It bothered her in 2016, and it still bothers her in 2020. </p>
<p id="IqmIqh">But pointing out that she doesn’t like Sanders or his approach to politics is not an effective use of her influence. Anyone considering voting for Sanders knows where she stands on him. Voters who are looking for more moderate, establishment choices, however, might be interested in who she does like. On the internet, Clinton has the reputation for being unpopular and she is broadly, but <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/243242/snapshot-hillary-clinton-favorable-rating-low.aspx">77 percent of Democratic adults viewed her favorably</a> as of a 2018 Gallup poll.</p>
<h3 id="eFysTH">The establishment lane needs a frontrunner</h3>
<p id="6uvKFz">Clinton’s record suggests she would prefer a more moderate, establishment candidate than Sanders, someone who is more likely to put forward incremental plans to reach progressive goals — someone who believes that working inside the existing system is how to get results (not through political revolution). </p>
<p id="y1y9Jd">Klobuchar is the most obvious choice for Clinton. (To be clear: Klobuchar has not asked for her endorsement publicly.) Klobuchar, Minnesota’s first female senator, has been called “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/26/us/politics/amy-klobuchar-2020-election.html">the senator of small things</a>,” a backhanded compliment, given to her for her work on tangible reforms like a bipartisan bill to ban lead in toys and another to make swimming pools safer for children. Her presidential platform focuses on incremental reforms that would add up to real improvements in people’s lives. This is Clinton’s style. </p>
<p id="rKeW6a">And as Clinton knows, incremental plans don’t get the biggest headlines. Klobuchar could use Clinton’s help getting some. </p>
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<cite>Preston Ehrler/Echoes Wire/Barcroft Media via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Amy Klobuchar celebrates with her supporters in Concord after a third-place finish in the New Hampshire primary on February 11, 2020.</figcaption>
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<p id="vtOW7X">Klobuchar is in a battle with former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, and former Vice President Joe Biden for the moderate mantle. Sanders won in New Hampshire by consolidating the progressive vote, but no one has emerged as his clear challenger. Unless one of them knocks out the rest, Sanders could run away with the nomination. (Sen. Elizabeth Warren had been Sanders’s fiercest competition, but her weak showings in Iowa and New Hampshire suggest she’ll have a tough time surpassing him.)</p>
<p id="Jns1Ll">Biden is the closest candidate to an heir apparent as the former vice president. And while he’s picked up a lot of Democratic endorsements, he hasn’t been backed by any big guns like Barack Obama — or any Clinton, for that matter. Biden’s dismal performance in Iowa and New Hampshire has put him in a weak position heading into the next contests. </p>
<p id="cAtGqE">This is where Clinton’s opinion could, in fact, make a difference. If she announced she was endorsing Klobuchar, it would give a clear signal to voters — millions and millions of voters who supported her — which candidate to consider. Even in a moment when the power of party leaders has waned, her voice is a rare one that is so big, it would matter, both to voters and to the media hungry for fresh narratives in a long contest. </p>
<h3 id="EsMYfd">Klobuchar would be a strong candidate, if people knew her </h3>
<p id="50ayf1">Klobuchar struggles with name recognition. She came in third place in New Hampshire, but nationally she comes in seventh place in <a href="https://morningconsult.com/2020-democratic-primary/">Morning Consult’s</a> name recognition tracker. The good news for her: When people do know her, they vote for her. She wins in places that other Democrats don’t, or she wins by bigger margins than those who do. </p>
<p id="4unJj7">According to the <a href="http://www.startribune.com/how-amy-klobuchar-fared-in-trump-country/498035261/">Star Tribune</a>, Donald Trump won about 3,000 of the state’s 4,120 election precincts in 2016. Two years later, Klobuchar won about 1,250 of those precincts in different regions, including suburbs and rural areas. </p>
<p id="l43UqT">She also way outperformed other Democrats in the state in 2018: </p>
<ul>
<li id="IPbUJd">Keith Ellison won the attorney general race by 4 points.</li>
<li id="Fpm2yq">Tim Walz won the gubernatorial race by 11 points.</li>
<li id="Q53nKt">Tina Smith won the Senate special election by 10.5 points.</li>
<li id="ehg8fe">Klobuchar won her Senate race by<em><strong> </strong></em>24 points.</li>
</ul>
<p id="XGir43">This isn’t new for her. As my Vox colleague Matt Yglesias <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/12/19/21030985/amy-klobuchar-electability-democratic-debate">writes</a>, “in 2012, Obama won 53 percent of the vote in Minnesota. Klobuchar won 65 percent. Back in 2006, Tim Pawlenty narrowly defeated his Democratic opponent for governor in a race that also saw a significant third-party vote. Klobuchar won 58 percent of the vote in a landslide win that was also the narrowest of her three statewide runs.”</p>
<p id="bCTA3C">Overall, she is one of the most <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-every-senator-ranks-according-to-popularity-above-replacement-senator/">popular</a> Democratic senators in the Senate. </p>
<p id="ndfqfI">Any Democratic nominee would need to outperform Clinton in the Midwest. Klobuchar’s winning record in Minnesota certainly suggests she could do well across the border in Wisconsin and likely in nearby Michigan. She would have a real shot at beating Trump on his own turf; her problem is the ability to get the attention she needs to do it. </p>
<p id="MCfz2X">If Clinton backed her, it would be a story. There’d be articles about the first woman to run passing the baton to the next woman. Klobuchar could end up with cover stories asking “Could she be the first?” There’d be takes. There’d be think pieces. There’d be photos. Klobuchar needs this buzz to propel her, especially as the race nationalizes ahead of Super Tuesday, just two weeks and change away. </p>
<h3 id="fsVyA2">Clinton can solve Klobuchar’s ambition problem </h3>
<p id="poG9Oa">Since 2016, Hillary Clinton and her team have spoken about the role of sexism in the campaign, returning repeatedly to a key theme: Voters are skeptical of ambitious women. </p>
<p id="o7afqF">One <a href="http://gap.hks.harvard.edu/price-power-power-seeking-and-backlash-against-female-politicians">prominent study found</a> that people are less likely to vote for a woman if they see her as “power-seeking,” while male politicians pay no price for similar behavior. The same study found that power-seeking female politicians induced “feelings of moral outrage (i.e., contempt, anger, and/or disgust)” among voters. These attitudes were the same among male and female voters. </p>
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<cite>Joe Raedle/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>Democratic presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar speaks during a campaign stop at Crawford Brew Works in Bettendorf, Iowa, on February 1, 2020.</figcaption>
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<p id="wiqNHr">In her book, <em>Dear Madam President,</em> Clinton’s former communications director, Jennifer Palmieri, recounted how the campaign considered this problem. Their research found that voters are put off by women who appear to have the ambition “to want to be in charge.” </p>
<p id="fxApum">In Clinton’s case, polls showed that when she was working for the public as secretary of state, her approval ratings soared. When she was running for office, <a href="https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/may/22/hillary-clinton/hillary-clintons-approval-rating-secretary-state-w/">they tanked</a>. In response, the campaign framed Clinton’s ambition as her “desire to serve others,” a formula other female politicians have also embraced.</p>
<p id="lcuvHg">In the 2018 midterm elections, this was a common theme. <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/12/6/18119733/congress-diversity-women-election-good-news">More women ran for Congress and won than at any time in history</a>. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez earned big headlines (rightly) for her bold challenge to Nancy Pelosi’s No. 2, Joe Crowley, unseating the longtime Democrat in New York City. But her incredible upset didn’t change the balance of power in the House. The many women who ran on platforms of service and common sense did. They told voters they felt compelled to run to protect health insurance and restore a sense of normalcy and stability. (Democrats who ran on Medicare-for-all <a href="http://centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/medicare-for-all-a-vote-loser-in-2018-u-s-house-elections/">performed worse</a> than those who ran on more moderate platforms.) </p>
<p id="nd44d1">Klobuchar has also embraced similar themes. Her closing statement during the last Democratic debate — a performance that buoyed her in Iowa — was all about her interest <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/10/politics/klobuchar-debate-closing-statement/index.html">in serving others</a> at a human level: </p>
<blockquote>
<p id="Ash8aO">And I will tell you this, there is a complete lack of empathy in this guy in the White House right now.</p>
<p id="B5SbbO">And I will bring that to you. If you have trouble stretching your paycheck to pay for that rent, I know you, and I will fight for you. If you have trouble deciding if you’re going pay for your child care or your long-term care, I know you, and I will fight for you. If you have trouble figuring out if you’re going to fill your refrigerator or fill your prescription drug, I know you, and I will fight for you.</p>
</blockquote>
<p id="R6xdBr">Klobuchar has also dealt with the same criticisms many women in power face. Palmieri wrote about a controversy last year that erupted around Klobuchar when anonymous former staffers criticized her style as a boss in press reports. Palmieri <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/02/13/amy-klobuchar-sexism-jennifer-palmieri-225026">wrote</a> for Politico magazine how the qualities that are celebrated in male politicians are liabilities for women: </p>
<blockquote><p id="vf2UxE">Stories about intimidating male bosses are typically not presented as disqualifying, but as evidence of these men as formidable leaders. These are men who should not be underestimated. These are men who should be respected.</p></blockquote>
<p id="7zdhRl">Clinton has paved the way for women behind her, from her groundbreaking <a href="https://www.pbs.org/weta/washingtonweek/web-video/hillary-clinton-declares-womens-rights-are-human-rights">speech in China on women’s rights as human rights in 1995</a> to her presidential runs in 2008 and 2016. It’s no coincidence that 2018 became the “Year of the Woman.” Research shows that when women step forward, more women step forward, creating an environment for more and more women to succeed. The same is true in politics. When a woman sees another woman run, she’s more likely to run. And when women run, the research shows they win. (<a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/6/18019234/women-record-breaking-midterms">In 2018, women outperformed male candidates</a>.) </p>
<p id="EwgXhE">Still, American politics is nowhere close to gender parity. Women know it’s not easy to be in politics. Palmieri <a href="https://time.com/5207773/jennifer-palmieri-hillary-clinton-campaign/">put it</a> this way: “Nothing draws fire like a woman moving forward.”</p>
<p id="ChN8LG">If Clinton endorsed Klobuchar, she could offer her some cover from that fire.</p>
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<p id="wDR5JM"><em>Correction: Hillary Clinton is viewed favorably by 77 percent of Democrats not all Americans. </em></p>
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https://www.vox.com/2020/2/14/21136816/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-endorse-amy-klobucharLaura McGann2020-02-05T00:14:00-05:002020-02-05T00:14:00-05:00One of America’s most prominent racists just received the Presidential Medal of Freedom
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<figcaption>Radio personality Rush Limbaugh was awarded the Medal of Freedom by First Lady Melania Trump during the State of the Union address on February 4, 2020. | Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>During the State of the Union, Donald Trump bestowed the highest civilian honor on Rush Limbaugh. </p> <p id="pn2HtS">Presidents have bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom on some of America’s greatest writers, artists, entertainers, journalists, and humanitarians — from Toni Morrison to Ansel Adams to Edward R. Murrow to Betty Ford. </p>
<p id="afd0o7">On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump gave it to one of America’s most prominent racists. </p>
<p id="wRr3aS">During his State of the Union address, Trump looked to Rush Limbaugh, seated in the audience with Melania Trump, and thanked him for his contributions to American life. </p>
<p id="TEQsHX">“And Rush, in recognition of all you have done for our nation, the millions of people today that you speak to and that you inspire, and all of the incredible work you have done for charity, I am proud to announce tonight he will be receiving our country’s highest — you will be receiving our country’s highest civilian honor, the presidential medal of freedom.” </p>
<p id="hWC5kk">Republicans cheered. </p>
<p id="9QJjHz">John F. Kennedy established the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963 to honor Americans who have made “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.” </p>
<p id="XoFMvE">Limbaugh, recently diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer, has devoted his decades-long radio career to building an audience of millions of listeners with his brand of right-wing, xenophobic — and patently racist — populism that Trump borrowed on his rise to power. </p>
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<cite>Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>Rush Limbaugh made millions off his brand of right-wing populism. </figcaption>
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<p id="wdDz73">Limbaugh fills hours of airtime each week with hateful commentary directed at <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/309523-limbaugh-obamas-race-paralyzed-this-country">African Americans</a>, <a href="https://nbc25news.com/news/political/rush-limbaugh-in-hot-water-with-asian-americans-10-23-2015-024327487">Asian Americans</a>, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/rush-limbaughs-decades-sexism-and-misogyny">women</a>, people with <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/rex-huppke/ct-rush-limbaugh-great-thunberg-autism-aspergers-trump-huppke-20191216-y4vuvv34cbel7fmqbfmfekdl44-story.html">disabilities</a>, and pretty much anyone who is not white, straight, and male. </p>
<p id="7yymoX">One person he does like: Donald Trump. Limbaugh has supported Trump since he won the 2016 nomination and has largely stood by him. He’s had him on his show for softball interviews more than once. </p>
<p id="ISC5OP">Limbaugh, like Trump, was a longtime <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/rush-limbaugh/limbaugh-revives-debunked-claim-obama-created-his-own-birther-conspiracy">birther</a>. Trump was an early birther adopter and kept spreading the conspiracy <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/29/16713664/trump-obama-birth-certificate">nine months into his presidency</a>. </p>
<p id="2X2PkW">Limbaugh’s racist rants continued beyond the 2008 election and started long before. </p>
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<li id="7qJgdD">In <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=qWdvAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA80&lpg=PA80&dq=black+caller+take+the+bone+out+of+your+nose+salon&source=bl&ots=C_yIC1KUCf&sig=ACfU3U2oXJJXWDN7Q8HC-QZL1D41TR-zlQ&hl=en&ppis=_e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjBq5_QzbnnAhVvhuAKHa-0C2wQ6AEwCnoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=black%20caller%20take%20the%20bone%20out%20of%20your%20nose%20salon&f=false">1990, Newsday reported</a> that Limbaugh snapped at a black caller who confronted him, saying, “Take the bone out of your nose and call me back.” (Limbaugh denies he said this.) </li>
<li id="ELIOcV">In 2007, Limbaugh <a href="https://www.alternet.org/2013/01/20-most-racist-things-rush-limbaugh-has-ever-said/">joked</a> he was “singing a song in my head here during the break: ‘Barack, the Magic Negro, doo doo do doo.’”</li>
<li id="4QcKXs">In <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/rush-limbaugh/limbaugh-nba-call-it-tba-thug-basketball-association-theyre-going-watch-crips-and">2004</a>, he suggested that professional basketball players were criminals: “You just gotta be who you are, and I think it’s time to get rid of this whole National Basketball Association. Call it the TBA, the Thug Basketball Association, and stop calling them teams. Call ’em gangs,” he said. </li>
<li id="KJKIbf">Three years later, Limbaugh described professional <a href="https://mediamatters.org/video/2009/10/12/matthews-whether-or-not-limbuagh-allowed-to-buy/155606#20091014">football</a> players the same way. “Look, let me put it to you this way. The NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it.”</li>
<li id="IRv1Rx">In 2011, he mocked a speech by the president of China, <a href="https://nbc25news.com/news/political/rush-limbaugh-in-hot-water-with-asian-americans-10-23-2015-024327487">saying</a> on air, “Hu Jintao was just going, ‘Ching cha. Ching chang cho chow. Cha chow. Ching cho. Chi ba ba ba. Kwo kwa kwa kee.” Limbaugh continued this at length, then said, “Nobody was translating, but that’s the closest I can get.”</li>
<li id="cDcW2G">In <a href="http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2016/12/08/zakaria_and_obama_agree_america_wasn_t_ready_for_a_black_president">2016</a>, Limbaugh claimed that Obama’s race “amplified malcontent operations like Black Lives Matter. It gave rise to a thugocracy, and nobody had the guts to speak out against it for fear of what would happen to them.” </li>
</ul>
<p id="gzcaAV">The list of examples goes <a href="https://www.alternet.org/2013/01/20-most-racist-things-rush-limbaugh-has-ever-said/">on</a> and <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/politicsnation/rush-limbaughs-most-outrageous-moments-25">on</a>. </p>
<p id="H6P1r7">Trump has made his own racist remarks and relied on race baiting throughout his <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/20/us/politics/trump-race-record.html">career</a>. From his entry into the presidential race — calling Mexicans “rapists” — to his <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/7/25/12270880/donald-trump-racist-racism-history">many, many comments</a> since about various groups, his presidency has been defined by racial animus. “I think they’re trouble. I think they’re looking for trouble,” Trump said of Black Lives Matters activists in a Fox News interview with Bill O’Reilly, echoing Limbaugh’s view. </p>
<p id="8DHf5y">It’s worth noting that beyond race, both men hold deeply held sexist views, too. Limbaugh once attacked a law student and health care advocate, Sandra Fluke, who was fighting to require health insurance providers to cover birth control, by calling her a <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120306050417/http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2012/02/29/butt_sisters_are_safe_from_newt_and_rick">slut</a>: </p>
<blockquote><p id="UgWzHC">What does it say about the college co-ed Susan Fluke [sic], who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex, what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She’s having so much sex she can’t afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex. </p></blockquote>
<p id="Bg4JM1">Trump has confronted women in public life similarly, as he did in describing then-Fox anchor Megyn Kelly as having “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/08/07/trump-says-foxs-megyn-kelly-had-blood-coming-out-of-her-wherever/">blood coming out of her wherever</a>” or <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/10/14/17976620/donald-trump-ford-lesley-stahl-60-minutes-kavanaugh-accuser">dismissing</a> Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser Christine Blasey Ford because “it doesn’t matter. We won.” </p>
<p id="gjsjFc">Both men recently made <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/9/24/20881837/greta-thunberg-person-of-the-year-trump">sexist, ableist attacks</a> on teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg, who has autism. </p>
<p id="F4RNCu">“So she’s out tweeting and politicizing, and she is free to lie and say whatever she wants to say about climate change and who’s responsible for it,” Limbaugh <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-black-lives-matter-2015-9">said</a>. “And nobody is permitted to question her, you see, because she has — what did they call it? She is in the autism spectrum, so you can’t disagree, you can’t question, because she’s not well.”</p>
<p id="s8sFYc">Both men have become powerful through building up a base by putting down others. Now one is honoring the other. And there’s nothing meritorious about it. </p>
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https://www.vox.com/2020/2/5/21123597/rush-limbaugh-medal-of-freedom-trump-racist-sexistLaura McGann2020-01-29T08:57:11-05:002020-01-29T08:57:11-05:00Joe Biden is the only candidate with a real shot at getting things done
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<figcaption>Amanda Northrop/Vox</figcaption>
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<p>The third in a Vox series making the best case for each of the top Democratic contenders.</p> <p id="nSzgnP"><em>Vox writers are making </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/2/12/21132260/who-vote-for-biden-sanders-warren-buttigieg-bloomberg"><em><strong>the best case for the leading Democratic candidates</strong></em></a><em>. This article is the third in the series. </em><a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/2/12/21132260/who-vote-for-biden-sanders-warren-buttigieg-bloomberg-klobuchar"><em><strong>Read them all here</strong></em></a><em>. Vox does not endorse individual candidates.</em></p>
<p id="1MXMhB">For a Democrat to beat President Donald Trump in 2020 and to have a shot at retaking the Senate, they’ll have to win in places Hillary Clinton lost. Democrats who’ve done it before want former Vice President Joe Biden to be the nominee. </p>
<p id="Snwo1l">Rep. Conor Lamb, 35, won a special election in the suburbs of Pittsburgh 18 months after Trump carried the district by 20 points. His campaign made time for only one national surrogate: Biden. </p>
<p id="qgY3Lv">“He reminds me of my son Beau,” Biden said at a rally at the<em> </em>Carpenter’s Training Center in Collier, Pennsylvania, a week before the March 2018 election, referring to his son who died of brain cancer in 2015.</p>
<p id="fuvJQt">Biden’s endorsement was not the only reason for Lamb’s victory, but the campaign did think the visit from the former vice president offered Lamb a chance to build credibility with union workers. </p>
<p id="E6l7Um">Lamb is now endorsing Biden to be the Democratic nominee, and he’s in good company. Biden has far more endorsements from elected officials than any other candidate. The <a href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2020-endorsements/democratic-primary/">FiveThirtyEight endorsement tracker</a>, which keeps track of high-profile endorsements and weights them by influence, has Biden scoring 237 points — nearly triple the second-place candidate, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who scores an 81. Sen. Bernie Sanders trails Warren at 55. Sen. Amy Klobuchar is next with 50. </p>
<p id="AVNXoB">Other candidates have picked up pockets of support in important states — in Michigan, five state lawmakers are backing Warren and the Young Democrats have come out for Sanders. But Biden has way outpaced his competitors in numbers, and he’s earned endorsements from Democrats who’ve won tough races in places that will be tough again in 2020. </p>
<p id="kRDsAr">In Pennsylvania, four sitting Democratic members of Congress have come out for Biden. In Arizona, where Democrats have a slim chance of picking up a Republican-held Senate seat, Biden has been endorsed by former Gov. Janet Napolitano (a rare Democrat to have won statewide in recent history). Sen. Doug Jones — the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in Alabama in decades — has endorsed him, too. </p>
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<cite>Jeff Swensen/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>Former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a rally in support of Democratic congressional candidate Conor Lamb in Pittsburgh on March 6, 2018.</figcaption>
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<p id="mwMvQV">Jones, up for reelection in 2020, won a special election in 2017 against a man accused of sexually assaulting two teenagers and other predatory behavior. Even so, the campaign knew it would be a feat for a Democrat to win in Alabama. They only wanted surrogates with cross-party appeal, like former NBA star Charles Barkley — and Biden.</p>
<p id="HmX2Bi">“We were not anxious to bring in a lot of national partisan officeholders,” said Democratic strategist Joe Trippi, who worked on the Jones campaign. “Biden’s never had the persona of a hard-charging partisan. He was somebody we wanted to campaign. He is among the least polarizing figures in the party.” </p>
<p id="uJ4r6U">The Democrats in swing states who have endorsed Biden did so, of course, because they support his policy positions. But in a year when Democrats are laser-focused on beating Trump, their endorsements also represent a vote of confidence in Biden’s ability to win in their states and to help down-ballot Democrats win, too. </p>
<p id="j6VE0f">Biden seems to have an edge in battleground states, but the top Democratic candidates all tend to outperform <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/general_election/">Trump in head-to-head polling</a>. The case for Biden is about his potential to do one more thing: take back the Republican-controlled Senate. </p>
<p id="TvRO1X">“How the hell are any of them going to get anything through Congress with Mitch McConnell sitting in the Senate?” Trippi said. </p>
<p id="pQQcHx">Biden’s coalition offers the Democrats their best shot at winning up and down the ballot. He’s led the pack nationally among Democrats, including core base voters like African Americans. He’s consistently polled further ahead of Trump in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/04/upshot/trump-biden-warren-polls.html">key Midwestern states</a>, despite relentless attacks from Trump. And the Democrats who know what it takes to defeat Republicans in hostile territory want him to take on not just Trump but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, too. </p>
<h3 id="1gALPe">How Democrats won in 2018</h3>
<p id="spYu8M">Two important storylines about the Democratic Party emerged from the 2018 election. </p>
<p id="lQeBBH">The first is the rise of the far left, best symbolized by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s upset victory against longtime Democrat Joe Crowley in New York. Ocasio-Cortez instantly became a leading voice in the new progressive wing of the party.</p>
<p id="wFbA4h">The second storyline to emerge has gotten far less attention but explains how Democrats actually won. While Ocasio-Cortez represents an important new force in the party, her win over a fellow Democrat didn’t change the party makeup of the House. That bragging right goes to a crop of moderate Democrats who ran careful, pragmatic campaigns. They won on tangible policy ideas, like preserving the Affordable Care Act’s provision on preexisting conditions. They weren’t calling for a revolution, so much as a return to stability. </p>
<p id="xyrSms">An analysis by <a href="http://centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/author/alan-i-abramowitz/">Alan I. Abramowitz</a> at the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia found that candidates in the 2018 midterms who supported Medicare-for-all <a href="http://centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/medicare-for-all-a-vote-loser-in-2018-u-s-house-elections/">performed worse</a> than those who did not. </p>
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<cite>Al Drago/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>Biden speaking at Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge, Iowa, on January 21, 2020.</figcaption>
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<p id="MN9ka3">It’s true that the progressive left helped inspire enthusiasm, including a surge of new voters and young voters. Latinx voters made up a larger vote share in 2018 than in previous elections.</p>
<p id="elvCsr">But as Yair Ghitza of the Democratic data firm Catalist estimates, <a href="https://medium.com/@yghitza_48326/revisiting-what-happened-in-the-2018-election-c532feb51c0">about 89 percent of the party’s improved vote margin is attributable to swing voting</a> —<strong> </strong>not higher turnout by committed Democrats. “A big piece of Democratic victory was due to 2016 Trump voters turning around and voting for Democrats in 2018.”</p>
<p id="Rc05ql">Ghitza also found that even though many of the Democratic wins were in suburban districts, “rural areas largely moved in a Democratic direction, often by even larger margins than the suburbs.” </p>
<p id="QdKvCF">To carry these districts and win the Electoral College, the Democratic nominee must appeal to a broad swath of voters — including Trump voters. Biden stumped in these districts in 2018 and candidates welcomed his help, a sign that he’s the strongest choice to do it in 2020. </p>
<h3 id="beVuO1">Biden has the best shot at carrying the Senate </h3>
<p id="LfqqRu">Any Democrat who could beat Trump would only have a shot at a transformative presidency if he or she also took the Senate. Right now, it looks bleak for Democrats. </p>
<p id="VnbeOH">McConnell controls the Senate by three votes (plus the vice president’s tie-breaker). And in 2020, there is no Republican running in a state that Clinton carried by 5 points or more. So while Democrats defend seats in 12 states where they’re up for reelection, a few of them tough races, they’ll also have to <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/6/5/18306339/senate-democrats-2020-election-map">flip seats in at least three competitive races</a> to take back control of Congress. </p>
<p id="n9a2Xw">Most Democrats believe their best bets for flips are in Colorado, Arizona, Georgia, and Maine. Biden has earned about a dozen endorsements across these states, including from Napolitano, the only Democrat to be elected governor in the state since 1982. </p>
<p id="EDWhhZ">Vulnerable Democrats defending seats include Sen. Gary Peters in Michigan, a state where Biden has consistently polled above Trump by a higher margin than any other candidate. He’s earned some half a dozen <a href="https://www.michiganadvance.com/blog/biden-snags-4-more-michigan-endorsements/">endorsements</a> from sitting lawmakers there, too. </p>
<p id="rbsPpD">Similarly, he’s picked up strong support in Alabama. </p>
<p id="gmail-nmVU2p">“Even if you look at an example like the state of Alabama where there’s a clear dichotomy between urban-exurban and rural, he’s uniquely positioned not to move just urban voters,” said Democratic Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin, who has endorsed Biden. “When you think about all parts of the state, he’s actually able to excite and motivate those same Alabamians who may be white or rural.” </p>
<p id="0vztCt">Hanging on to the House is not a given, either. Democrats surged in 2018, delivering a wave election even bigger than the Tea Party’s in 2010. But this time around, Trump will be back at the top of the ticket and could make it harder for Democrats who won on his turf. </p>
<p id="8CbjyU">Biden’s campaign is headquartered in Pennsylvania, a state that Barack Obama won in 2008 and 2012 but Clinton lost in 2016 and that Democrats will need to win back in 2020 to realistically defeat Trump. He’s racked up endorsements from six sitting and former Pennsylvania lawmakers.</p>
<p id="jOueN6">“I think some in the media and the sort of commentary around this race have been a little bit focused on the size and novelty of policy proposals,” Lamb said in a recent interview before heading to Iowa to stump for Biden. “I think Joe Biden is advancing ideas that can actually be passed into law and actually help the lives of people who I care about.”</p>
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<h3 id="gQhPaA">Liberals shouldn’t be so worried about Biden </h3>
<p id="ydQNYE">A fear among liberal skeptics of Biden is that his pragmatism represents a retreat from the party’s leftward momentum. That’s true in one sense. He doesn’t pass progressive purity tests on issues like Medicare-for-all. On paper, his plans are less ambitious. </p>
<p id="nCHfHk">But he’d still be the most progressive Democratic nominee in history if he won. </p>
<p id="ei5qSI">His plans line up closer with the center of gravity in the party, but in recent years the center has moved much further left than even during the Barack Obama years. For example, Biden isn’t willing to replace the Affordable Care Act with a new, single-payer system like Warren or Sanders’s Medicare-for-all. But he does want to improve on it with a major new addition, an expansive public option. He’d also cap premiums at 8.5 percent of a patient’s income. </p>
<p id="YPq1GG">These might seem small relative to the scope of Medicare-for-all, but Medicare-for-all has pretty much no chance of becoming law, and it’s likely to spark a damaging intraparty fight among congressional Democrats that harms the chances of passing any health care bill.</p>
<p id="JTV0jt">Lamb pointed out that there probably aren’t enough votes in the Democratic-controlled House to pass it, never mind a Republican-controlled Senate (or even a narrowly Democratic-controlled Senate post-2020). And the key Senate Democrats who will drive health care policy if Democrats retake the gavel have already <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/8/27/20827210/senate-democrats-health-reform-medicare-obamacare-2020-filibuster">said</a> Medicare-for-all is a nonstarter.</p>
<p id="acwqZ6">Ultimately, the question of which health care policy passes Congress comes down to how many votes Democrats have in Congress. If Biden is best for down-ballot Democrats, as many Democrats who’ve won in those states believe, then he’s likelier to get health care reform passed than his competitors with more ambitious plans, but narrower political appeal.</p>
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<cite>Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>National Nurses United union members protest during a rally in front of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America in Washington on April 29, 2019.</figcaption>
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<p id="XOCqRU">“It takes a lot of integrity not to necessarily back the flashiest thing in the moment but the thing that I can actually do for you and your life,” Lamb said. </p>
<p id="gSaA35">Woodfin agreed, echoing Lamb’s point that most Americans don’t favor Medicare-for-all; even among Democrats, the enthusiasm has <a href="https://www.kff.org/health-reform/poll-finding/kff-health-tracking-poll-october-2019/">declined</a>. </p>
<p id="1d7nGX">“At a certain point, being a leader, wanting to be a leader — the president, the leader of the free world — pragmatism is required,” Woodfin said. “It’s not just this whole world of what I want to do. </p>
<p id="ykCoYq">“As it relates to his policies, they are pragmatic. They are workable.” </p>
<p id="uQBrYB">Biden has also outlined a suite of policies that, taken on their own terms, would be the most ambitious governing agenda of any modern Democrat: </p>
<ul>
<li id="b6wVYO">On climate change, Biden’s plan is <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/9/10/20851109/2020-democrats-climate-change-plan-president">similar</a> to those of the other leading contenders. He’s also been fighting climate change well before the rest of his party. He introduced the first climate bill ever in the Senate in 1986. </li>
<li id="dEPkLB">On criminal justice reform, he’s put forth a sweeping proposal, which my colleague German Lopez, often critical of Biden’s policies, <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/7/23/20706987/joe-biden-criminal-justice-reform-plan-mass-incarceration-war-on-drugs">describes</a> as “one of the most comprehensive among the presidential campaigns, taking on various parts of the criminal justice system at once.”</li>
<li id="ItGq2S">On gun control, he’s one of just a handful of original candidates to get into his <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/8/7/20756698/democratic-presidential-candidates-gun-violence-mass-shootings">plans in detail</a>.</li>
<li id="XN8zQV">On paying for college, Biden was an early supporter of the idea of free college, though he speaks about it less now. He did, however, unveil a well-received plan to make community college free. (He also put forward a <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/5/28/18643078/biden-education-teachers-plan">comprehensive plan</a> for primary education, which includes boosting spending in poorer districts and raising teacher pay.) </li>
</ul>
<p id="vsBvXk">Still, there is one significant policy criticism that Biden can’t overcome easily: his stance on the Iraq War. He voted in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to support the intervention. He’s recently portrayed the vote as a decision he quickly regretted. But as Alex Ward and Tara Golshan <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/10/15/20849072/joe-biden-iraq-history-democrats-election-2020">reported</a> for Vox, the story of Biden and Iraq is long, complicated, and arguably checkered.</p>
<p id="qWgxX1">During a recent debate, Biden reiterated that he regrets the vote and that he has proven he’s <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/01/14/democratic-debate-biden-and-sanders-spar-over-iraq-war-votes/">trustworthy</a> on the issue. </p>
<p id="IPGvBT">“It was a mistake and I acknowledged that, but the man who argued against the war, Barack Obama, picked me to be vice president.”</p>
<p id="WCkEPW">While liberals recall how the Iraq War shaped the 2008 primary and general election, a deadly folly that loomed in voters’ minds, polling amid Trump’s Iran confrontation showed 32 percent of potential Democratic primary voters <a href="https://morningconsult.com/2020/01/13/amid-iran-crisis-democratic-primary-voters-most-trust-biden-on-foreign-relations/">trusted Biden most on foreign policy</a>. Sanders came in second, trailing him by 12 points. </p>
<p id="8PXKwA">Matters of war and foreign policy are certainly big enough questions for any individual voter to consider in deciding whom to pick for president. For Biden, he’s overwhelmingly the favorite among Democrats on these matters. </p>
<h3 id="11o9iu">There are some obvious problems with Biden</h3>
<p id="DoMyG6">In an ideal world, the Democrats would likely want a nominee younger than Biden, who is 77.</p>
<p id="2JPjtk">It’s also true that for a party coming off the historic election of the first African American president and that came within a razor’s edge of electing the first female president, there’s something symbolically disappointing about retreating to another white man. </p>
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<cite>Sean Rayford/Getty Images</cite>
<figcaption>Joe Biden arrives at Zion Baptist Church before the King Day at the Dome march and rally in Columbia, South Carolina, on January 20, 2020.</figcaption>
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<p id="IiVZa1">This is made worse by the fact that when he was pressed to address his <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/3/29/18241598/joe-biden-lucy-flores-touching-women-media-history-explained">problematic personal treatment of women</a> near the launch of his campaign, Biden was perfunctory and dismissive. </p>
<p id="9cLFHX">Representation matters, and with Biden we’re not getting a real advance. But we don’t live in an ideal world, and there isn’t a younger and slightly more self-reflective version of Biden out there for Democrats to vote for. </p>
<p id="uyyKCl">There’s way too much that’s both tangibly and symbolically at stake with Trump’s presence in the White House for Democrats to ignore the overwhelming evidence that the politicians with something on the line in tough races think Biden is the best chance to beat him.</p>
<h3 id="EzsSf3">Trump has been running — and losing — against Biden for months </h3>
<p id="LEhw1M">Ultimately, the 2020 primary issue Democrats care about most is who can stand up to Trump and beat him. Biden is in a unique position. He’s faced almost a year of attacks by Trump — and it hasn’t hurt him. </p>
<p id="E27jpn">In the fall, the American public learned that Trump had enlisted his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani to gin up dirt on Biden’s son Hunter Biden by leaning on the government of Ukraine. While these revelations ultimately ended in the president’s impeachment, they also led to months and months of Trump attacking Joe Biden. </p>
<p id="NaUzEb">In October, Trump really lit into him with <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/10/11/20909552/trump-minneapolis-rally-ilhan-omar-somalis-joe-biden">personal insults</a> (he “was only a good vice president because he understood how to kiss Barack Obama’s ass”). Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump and his former press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders went on to make fun of <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/12/20/21031333/joe-biden-stuttering-sarah-sanders-democratic-debate">Biden’s slight stutter</a>. </p>
<p id="b4PlSL">Amid all this, Biden’s fundraising <a href="https://apnews.com/db01cb07afed4f82831c04127542c019">skyrocketed</a>, and he paid no penalty in the polls. Biden remains up over Trump in head-to-head polling in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. (As noted earlier, most Democratic candidates beat Trump in head-to-head polling, but Biden consistently holds the highest margin in swing states.) </p>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Why are you so obsessed with me, Mr. President? <a href="https://t.co/BbAawEvQo6">pic.twitter.com/BbAawEvQo6</a></p>— Joe Biden (Text Join to 30330) (@JoeBiden) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1217091659076337664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 14, 2020</a>
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<p id="RpupiY">Biden’s campaign made an ad about Trump’s attacks, which Biden tweeted with a joke, “Why are you so obsessed with me?” Sometimes a joke is funny because it gets at the truth. </p>
<p id="DK2irp">Biden isn’t the flashiest candidate or the most ambitious in his proposals. But he’s the candidate who is in the best position to beat Trump and take back the Senate. He’s stayed strong in the polls nationally and up against Trump in key states, despite months of attacks. He’s got strong support from different types of Democrats. And most of all, the Democrats who know what it takes to win in Trump country believe he’s the best candidate for the job. </p>
<hr class="p-entry-hr" id="xpFwLu">
<p id="52deT6">Read the rest of the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/2/12/21132260/who-vote-for-biden-sanders-warren-buttigieg-bloomberg"><strong>Case For</strong></a> series: The <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/1/7/21002895/bernie-sanders-2020-electability">case for Bernie Sanders</a>; The <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/1/15/21054083/elizabeth-warren-2020-democratic-primary"><strong>case for Elizabeth Warren</strong></a>; the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/2/4/21121636/pete-buttigieg-beat-trump-win-2020-election-primaries"><strong>case for Pete Buttigieg</strong></a>; the <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/2/18/21135149/mike-bloomberg-democrat-polls-debate-new-york-mayor-record"><strong>case for Mike Bloomberg</strong></a>; the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/2/21/21133969/case-for-amy-klobuchar-electoral-college-democrats"><strong>case for Amy Klobuchar</strong></a>. Vox does not endorse individual candidates.</p>
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https://www.vox.com/2020/1/29/21078640/joe-biden-beat-trump-win-2020-election-primariesLaura McGann