It’s okay to be a rapist as long as you are sufficiently powerful

So let’s pick this apart:


In the screenshot that Peter Daou includes in his tweet, Sandy Knauer asserts that she would vote for Joe Biden over Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders even if Biden raped her “in the middle of Fifth Avenue.”[2]

First, it’s a remarkable thing to see anybody, but especially a woman, diminish rape. It’s not the first time. Bill Clinton was the beneficiary of similar adoration from second wave feminists.[3] So it’s not very striking that, among accused rapists and sexual assailants, Knauer prefers[4] Biden[5] to Trump.

Second, Knauer’s mention of Fifth Avenue evokes Trump’s infamous remark that he “could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”[6] The hypothetical case of Biden raping Knauer compares to the hypothetical case of Trump shooting someone but does not compare to anything I am aware of applying to Sanders, who has not, to my knowledge, been accused of sexual harassment, sexual assault, or rape by anyone, and who has not, to my knowledge, ever suggested he could kill someone without losing voters.

Rape is not merely not a deal-breaker for Knauer; it is far less important than other issues, just as it was in the case of Bill Clinton. Which is to say, it’s okay to be a rapist as long as you are sufficiently powerful and your politics are acceptable. And as we see with Bill Cosby[7] Brett Kavanaugh,[8] and countless other powerful men, maybe even if your politics aren’t so acceptable.

  1. [1]Peter Daou, “Something tells me I'm wasting my time arguing with Biden defenders. . . .” Twitter, July 1, 2021, https://twitter.com/peterdaou/status/1410631136565415940
  2. [2]Screenshot in Peter Daou, “Something tells me I'm wasting my time arguing with Biden defenders. . . .” Twitter, July 1, 2021, https://twitter.com/peterdaou/status/1410631136565415940
  3. [3]Shawn Boburg, “Enabler or family defender? How Hillary Clinton responded to husband’s accusers,” Washington Post, September 28, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/enabler-or-family-defender-how-hillary-clinton-responded-to-husbands-accusers/2016/09/28/58dad5d4-6fb1-11e6-8533-6b0b0ded0253_story.html; Amy Chozick, “’90s Scandals Threaten to Erode Hillary Clinton’s Strength With Women,” New York Times, January 20, 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/21/us/politics/90s-scandals-threaten-to-erode-hillary-clintons-strength-with-women.html; Maureen Dowd, “When Hillary Clinton Killed Feminism,” New York Times, February 13, 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/14/opinion/sunday/when-hillary-clinton-killed-feminism.html; Liza Featherstone, “Hillary Clinton’s Faux Feminism,” Truthout, February 28, 2016, http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/35006-hillary-clinton-s-faux-feminism
  4. [4]Screenshot in Peter Daou, “Something tells me I'm wasting my time arguing with Biden defenders. . . .” Twitter, July 1, 2021, https://twitter.com/peterdaou/status/1410631136565415940
  5. [5]Brett Samuels, “Biden: ‘I’m not sorry for anything that I have ever done,’” Hill, April 5, 2019, https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/437582-biden-im-not-sorry-for-anything-that-i-have-ever-done; Alanna Vagianos, “Joe Biden Accused Of Sexually Assaulting Senate Aide In 1993,” HuffPost, March 29, 2020, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-biden-sexual-assault-tara-reade_n_5e7e69c8c5b6256a7a2a88f2
  6. [6]Donald Trump, “Trump: I could ‘shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters,’” CNN, January 24, 2016, https://www.cnn.com/2016/01/23/politics/donald-trump-shoot-somebody-support/index.html
  7. [7]British Broadcasting Corporation, “Bill Cosby sentenced to state prison for sexual assault,” September 26, 2018, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45644374; MaryClaire Dale, “Bill Cosby freed from prison after court overturns sex assault conviction,” Los Angeles Times, June 30, 2021, https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-06-30/bill-cosby-sex-assault-conviction-overturned; Jeannie Suk Gersen, “The Legal Meaning of the Cosby Mistrial,” New Yorker, June 18, 2017, http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/legal-meaning-of-the-cosby-trial
  8. [8]Emma Brown, “California professor, writer of confidential Brett Kavanaugh letter, speaks out about her allegation of sexual assault,” Washington Post, September 16, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/california-professor-writer-of-confidential-brett-kavanaugh-letter-speaks-out-about-her-allegation-of-sexual-assault/2018/09/16/46982194-b846-11e8-94eb-3bd52dfe917b_story.html; Aaron C. Davis, Emma Brown, and Joe Heim, “Kavanaugh’s ‘choir boy’ image on Fox interview rankles former Yale classmates,” Washington Post, September 25, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2018/09/25/ea5e50d4-c0eb-11e8-9005-5104e9616c21_story.html; Karoun Demirjian, Amy Gardner, and Seung Min Kim, “Senate Judiciary panel’s top Democrat calls for delay in Kavanaugh hearing after new allegation,” Washington Post, September 23, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/as-hearing-on-kavanaugh-assault-allegations-loom-senators-seem-unwilling-to-budge/2018/09/23/99f3fd3e-bf37-11e8-90c9-23f963eea204_story.html; Elie Mystal, “And Now We’ve Moved To The Adult Assault Stage Of The Kavanaugh Accusations,” Above the Law, September 26, 2018, https://abovethelaw.com/2018/09/and-now-weve-moved-to-the-physical-assault-stage-of-the-kavanaugh-accusations/; Maeve Reston and Sara Sidner, “New allegations against Kavanaugh submitted to Senate committee,” CNN, September 26, 2018, https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/26/politics/julie-swetnick-allegation-kavanaugh/index.html; Kathryn Rubino, “Brett Kavanaugh Seems Like He Was A Real Jerk In High School,” Above the Law, September 25, 2018, https://abovethelaw.com/2018/09/brett-kavanaugh-seems-like-he-was-a-real-jerk-in-high-school/; Emily Witt, “The Boys’ Club That Protects Brett Kavanaugh,” New Yorker, September 22, 2018, https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-boys-club-that-protects-brett-kavanaugh

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