Former Vice President Joe Biden is promising to scrap newly proposed guidelines by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos meant to ensure that individuals being accused of sexual misconduct on college campuses receive due process.
Biden, who most notably led the Obama administration’s “It’s On Us” campaign as vice president, criticized the education secretary on Wednesday for making college campuses “less safe.” In particular, the former vice president claimed DeVos’s “new rule gives colleges a green light to ignore sexual violence and strip survivors of their rights.”
“Survivors deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and when they step forward they should be heard, not silenced,” Biden said in a statement.
The statement came shortly after Devos and the Department of Education announced new regulations mandating that colleges and universities give individuals accused of sexual misconduct formal complaints, which are to be adjudicated in a courtroom-like setting.
Legal Group Files Challenge to Virginia Abortion Ballot Push
Op-Ed: This Video from the Church of England Will Make You Proud of Your Christian Heritage
Iran faces financial death blow because of war
Virginia Democrats dig in on DHS funding line despite ISIS-linked shooting at ODU, illegal immigrant murder
Red States Offer Low Housing Prices as Yet Another Draw for Families
Ex-Dem senator admits to affair with former bodyguard in explosive court filing: ‘Romantic and Intimate’
The Economist Blasted with Flurry of Posts for Bemoaning Death of Murderous Ayatollah
State Department cuts fee to renounce US citizenship by 80% to $450
Teens accused of plotting twisted ‘blood ritual’ school killing giggle in cruiser about glam shot
Critical swing state candidates reveal where they stand on DHS funding after suspected terror attacks
Leftists Tell Conservative Students To Kill Themselves, Use Kirk Assassination Images To Threaten Event
Government’s power to surveil foreign threats at risk over SAVE Act fight
Visit Goes Horribly Wrong: Two California Men Face Felony Charges for Snapping $200K Tusk off Woolly Mammoth Museum Exhibit
Virginia Dems send sweeping gun ban to Spanberger as West Virginia weighs expanding machine-gun access
Vance touts Trump economy gains during North Carolina tour, cites rising home purchases
Under prior Obama administration guidelines, colleges were allowed to use a “preponderance of the evidence” standard when determining the guilt of those accused. Such regulations often led to lawsuits alleging the infringement of civil liberties, as many of the accused were not allowed to cross-examine witnesses.
Devos’s new regulations will allow representatives for not only victims but also the accused to call witnesses and challenge evidence. Such hearings, which will be either conducted in-person or virtually, will have to now to rely on a “clear and convincing” standard, rather than just a “preponderance of the evidence.” When investigating complaints, colleges will also have to rely on trained personnel to evaluate evidence and make final decisions.
The former vice president said on Wednesday:
Trump’s Education Department … is trying to shame and silence survivors, and take away parents’ peace of mind… as President, I’ll be … on the side of survivors, who deserve to have their voices heard, their claims taken seriously and investigated, and their rights upheld.
Biden’s attack on DeVos and the Trump administration comes as the former vice president, himself, is under fire and facing accusations of sexual assault.
Legal Group Files Challenge to Virginia Abortion Ballot Push
Op-Ed: This Video from the Church of England Will Make You Proud of Your Christian Heritage
Iran faces financial death blow because of war
Virginia Democrats dig in on DHS funding line despite ISIS-linked shooting at ODU, illegal immigrant murder
Red States Offer Low Housing Prices as Yet Another Draw for Families
Ex-Dem senator admits to affair with former bodyguard in explosive court filing: ‘Romantic and Intimate’
The Economist Blasted with Flurry of Posts for Bemoaning Death of Murderous Ayatollah
State Department cuts fee to renounce US citizenship by 80% to $450
Teens accused of plotting twisted ‘blood ritual’ school killing giggle in cruiser about glam shot
Critical swing state candidates reveal where they stand on DHS funding after suspected terror attacks
Leftists Tell Conservative Students To Kill Themselves, Use Kirk Assassination Images To Threaten Event
Government’s power to surveil foreign threats at risk over SAVE Act fight
Visit Goes Horribly Wrong: Two California Men Face Felony Charges for Snapping $200K Tusk off Woolly Mammoth Museum Exhibit
Virginia Dems send sweeping gun ban to Spanberger as West Virginia weighs expanding machine-gun access
Vance touts Trump economy gains during North Carolina tour, cites rising home purchases
Late last month, Tara Reade, who came forward in April 2019 to accuse the former vice president of unwanted touching and sexual harassment, revealed there was more to her story. Reade now claims he pushed her up against a wall and forcibly penetrated her with his fingers, while she was briefly employed by his Senate office in the early 1990s.
The accusation has been difficult to corroborate given that nearly 30 years have passed since it supposedly took place. As such, Reade has sought to make public the sexual harassment complaint she allegedly filed in 1993, especially as former Biden staffers claim no such document exists.
Reade, for her part, has contended that not only does the complaint exist, but it is likely within the thousands of Senate documents the former vice president donated to the University of Delaware in 2011.
Story cited here.
