It came up first when her mom called in to a radio show (iirc) in the 90s
Her mother called in to Larry King and the entire quote is worth pasting.
“Yes, hello. I’m wondering what a staffer would do besides go to the press in Washington?” she asks. “My daughter has just left there after working for a prominent senator, and could not get through with her problems at all, and the only thing she could have done was go to the press, and she chose not to do it out of respect for him.”
It’s on the record that Tara Reade was disgruntled with members of Biden’s senatorial staff and the fact that she wasn’t offered a permanent position in his office, but the first public mention of sexual assault was made when Reade contacted a local paper in 2019. She had previously contacted journalists at Vox, the AP, and the Washington Post-none of whom published due to being unable to verify her story (this is what those organizations have reported, not my own opinion wrt verifiability).
But you are making the point perfectly of “believe women” -> “noo, not those women”
Assuming for the moment that you’re arguing in good faith, /#BelieveWomen was for the majority of its supporters a call to give more credence to those claiming to have been assaulted. There was certainly a very vocal and very tiny (online) minority espousing the belief that rape allegations must never be questioned, but like most of these culture war skirmishes over hashtags and the like, the tiny minority received most of the coverage and (online) attention. I’m not arguing that those attitudes didn’t seep into real life-see Al Franken-but I would argue that they did so more as a reaction to their adherents than to the ideas themselves.
Rape allegations should be thoroughly investigated at all levels of society, and particularly in the upper echelons of power. Reade’s allegations have been thoroughly reported on in the wake of the initial interview with her local paper, as has the context of Biden’s 40 years as a senator and 8 years as Vice President.
For what it’s worth, Bill Clinton is a sex pest who should be serving time right now.