Mika Brzezinski lauded for pressing Biden on sexual assault allegations: ‘Those weren’t softballs’

MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski is getting mostly positive reviews for her interview Friday with presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, after the “Morning Joe” co-host grilled Biden on sexual assault allegations made against him by former Senate staffer Tara Reade.

The extensive interview from Biden’s home studio in Delaware marks the first time he has addressed the allegations, which stem from a 1993 incident the ex-staffer first raised in March. 

“Did you sexually assault Tara Reade?” Brzezinski asked to kick the interview off.

“No, it is not true,” the former vice president replied. “I’m saying unequivocally it never, never happened and it didn’t. It never happened.”

In one of the most pointed moments of the interview, Brzezinski, a vociferous critic of President Trump, asked Biden about his statements during Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings supporting a woman making accusations against the nominee.

At the time, Biden said that when a woman comes forward to make allegations “in the glaring lights of focus, nationally, you’ve got to start off with the presumption that at least the essence of what she’s talking about is real.”

“What I said during the Kavanaugh hearings was that she had a right to be heard,” Biden responded. “The fact that she came forward, the presumption would be that she was telling the truth, unless she wasn’t telling the truth.”

Positive reviews came in for Brzezinski on social media after the interview.

Mika is eviscerating Biden over the believe-all-victims double standard, and Biden is misrepresenting his earlier position. #MorningJoe

— Robby Soave (@robbysoave) May 1, 2020

Watch as Mika Brzezinski actually gets Joe Biden flustered on whether he will call for a search of University of Delaware records on Tara Reade. This is the kind of interview journalists could have been doing for the last 36 days, but failed to. pic.twitter.com/bgoHoagyJC

— Scott Whitlock (@ScottJW) May 1, 2020

Not sure you can fault Mika’s questioning. Those weren’t softballs. Sure, I’d like some more granular follow ups, but that was a grilling.

— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahDispatch) May 1, 2020

Brzezinski also won praise for pressing Biden on whether he’d agree to open records that might be held in his archives at the University of Delaware related to Reade.

.@morningmika asks repeatedly: Why not push for the release of any documents related to Tara Reade in the University of Delaware records?

Biden: “There are no personnel documents. … I don’t understand the point you’re trying to make.”

— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) May 1, 2020

When asked why he won’t just allow the Delaware files to be searched for Tara Reade’s name, Joe Biden is literallyspeechless. pic.twitter.com/FQ0i5PkGE2

— Gravel Institute (@GravelInstitute) May 1, 2020

Damn…

Mika pressed Biden on this hard and Biden had no real response

He just short circuited, fumbledandfizzled

This is getting sad, Biden cannot handle this level of politics anymore https://t.co/l8yR3Lttia

— Tim Pool (@Timcast) May 1, 2020

Defensive body language from Mika Brzezinski as Biden rambles on and evades answering tough questions pic.twitter.com/lI3GjpOPBy

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) May 1, 2020

One criticism of the interview regarded Brzezinski not asking about people who have publicly said that Reade told them of her allegations.

Mika did a decent job pressing Biden on the core allegation against him, but she omitted mentions of potentially corroborating evidence.

Final score: pic.twitter.com/BQ2HeAK5ZS

— . – (@BecketAdams) May 1, 2020

Mika did a good job on that interview despite her personal affinity for Biden. She pressed him several times on both the ‘believe women’ standard and the UD records. She should’ve brought up, however, all of the other people who say Reade told them about the incident.

— Amber Athey (@amber_athey) May 1, 2020

Biden is leading President Trump in the RealClearPolitics index of polls by 5.3 points.

Trump has also faced multiple allegations of harassment and assault from multiple women since announcing his candidacy in June 2015.