“This is going to be a lingering issue for Joe Biden, similar to how this continues to be a lingering issue for Brett Kavanaugh,” said Bryan Lanza, a lobbyist who worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign and transition and remains close to the White House. “There’s no shaking this stigma now.”
The attacks go beyond accusing Biden and Democrats of a double standard.
Trump aides say the Reade allegation will remind voters of the year-old allegation against Biden for being too touchy with women. And, they say, it has revealed the media’s liberal slant for more aggressively covering Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford than Reade.
A former senior administration official said Trump’s team has an advantage because Democrats have already set an expectation that women should be believed in such situations. But, the former official said, Trump is “not a perfect messenger on this, and we all know why and he should let the campaign and should let female surrogates drive a lot of this messaging in a way that it’s going to get out there.”
