Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden laughs with audience members during a meeting with local residents, Monday, Dec. 2, 2019, in Emmetsburg, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

I’ve gotta give the Times credit. Somehow managing to make the sexual assault accusation against Joe Biden into a referendum on one’s views of Vladimir Putin is some peak 2020 stuff. Because if someone has ever said a positive word about the Russian strongman, they obviously deserve what they got, right?

No, I’m not exaggerating. The Times published a piece today that brought up Tara Reade’s previous musings about Putin in an attempt to discredit her.

"Reade seems almost engineered in a lab to inspire skepticism in mainstream Democrats, both because her story keeps changing and because of her bizarre public worship of President Vladimir Putin"

More NY Times today on Reade allegation against Joe Biden: https://t.co/VsabBQrfNu

— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) April 14, 2020

Michelle Goldberg is no stranger to writing on sexual assault allegations either. She was front-and-center during the Kavanaugh hearings, writing an extensive piece targeting the now-Supreme Court Justice. See if you can spot the change in tone between her two articles.

Subtle difference. pic.twitter.com/OVfPRAbgwK

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) April 14, 2020

Reade’s allegation is not being used to “troll” the #metoo movement, it’s being used to expose its vast, partisan hypocrisy. And for that, they have no one to blame but themselves. Once Reade came forward, people like Goldberg had a chance to be consistent and at least approach the accusation with some grace. Instead, most of the media have either ignored the story or attempted to destroy it. If the #metoo movement was really about believing women, that wouldn’t be happening. Rather, the #metoo movement has been exposed as nothing but an item of convenience, only being useful when it targets the “right” people.

Notice that the Times and The Washington Post both put out their “investigative” pieces on the allegation on Easter Sunday. Impeccable timing if I must say so myself. They also both came to the same conclusion, even parroting each other’s language by warning Reade that she could be charged for filing a false police report. Could you imagine either outlet waiting weeks to hit a Republican in such a situation? Much less attempting to intimidate the woman?

But the Times decided to up the ante here, going so far as to call Reade’s credibility into question by tying her to the Russians. That’s how insane these people have gone. They never actually cared about women being abused. They just cared about how the movement could possibly take down people they opposed. That’s been made abundantly clear and they don’t get to switch it up again in the future.