The hashtag #DropOutBiden trended on Twitter beginning early Saturday morning and throughout the day, fueled in part by progressives and #MeToo movement supporters calling on Joe Biden to drop out of the 2020 presidential race.
Although supporters of Biden tried to blame the hashtag on Russian bots, there were several prominent progressives who were using the hashtag, such as Peter Daou, a former Hillary Clinton adviser.
DIFFICULT THREAD — #BIDEN SHOULD WITHDRAW
1. I respect the will of the voters.
2. But new information has emerged supporting #TaraReade's account of being sexually assaulted by #JoeBiden.
3. Credible rape accusations are disqualifying or we have NO moral standards.
— Peter Daou (@peterdaou) April 25, 2020
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A number of those tweeting the hashtag seemingly included supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). As the day wore on, prominent conservative figures and pundits also began tweeting it.
The hashtag coincided with the emergence of an alleged video clip of Biden accuser Tara Reade’s mother.
The 1993 clip from Larry King Live featured a woman calling in to the show from San Luis Obispo, where Reade’s mother reportedly lived at the time. On the show, the woman said that her daughter had just worked for a “prominent senator” and had a story to tell but did not want to go to the press out of respect for the senator.
Reade has alleged that Biden sexually assaulted her when she worked in his office as a staffer in the early 1990s. The Biden campaign has denied it happened and declined to comment on the video to CNN.
Story cited here.
