CNN Senior Political Commentator and former top aide for President Obama’s two White House campaigns, David Axelrod, wrote and editorial for CNN that focused on how Obama’s vetting a team of lawyers began “an in-depth vetting process of potential candidates for vice president” when it became clear Barack Obama would be the Democratic Party’s nominee in 2008.
Obama’s team considered dozens of men and women to become his running mate. They sifted through years of each candidates past investigating “their strengths, vulnerabilities and, of course, any disqualifying defects.” The senator from Delaware, Joe Biden, rose to the top and eventually became President Obama’s running mate.
Although, Mr. Axelrod was not on the vetting team, they briefed him frequently on their findings.
“The name Tara Reade never came up. No formal complaint. No informal chatter. Certainly, no intimation of sexual harassment or assault from her or anyone else. The team of investigators, expert in their work, would not have missed it.
Reade did not surface her allegations of a criminal sexual assault when Biden was a candidate for president in 2008, nor did she offer them confidentially to the Obama vetting team when Biden emerged as a principal contender for vice president later that year.”
Mr. Axelrod also said that had the Obama team knew of any credible issues of any type surfaced during the vetting process, Obama would not have chose him to serve as vice president.
“Obama would not have tolerated it, even if he and Biden were close then, which they were not. Their friendship grew only after Biden joined the ticket and through their eight-year partnership in the White House. At that time, they were distant Senate colleagues and most recently rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination.”
Read the entire editorial from the link above.
