Harvey Weinstein has not suffered enough, former Vice President Joe Biden, speaking publicly about the growing number of women claiming to have been sexually harassed or assaulted by the mega Hollywood producer and big Dem donor.
“It is my hope there are more consequences. It is my hope the statute hasn’t run on some [allegations], because this man deserves more than losing his company,” Biden told a crowd at Rutgers University on Thursday. The previous night, Biden had made his first public remarks about Weinstein at the Anti-Violence Project Courage Awards in New York City, after being awarded for his work on behalf of the LGBTQ community.
In his remarks, Biden insisted it’s long past time for the powerful men in Hollywood to speak up.
“Silence,” he informed them, “is complicity. Silence is consent.”
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That charge has been extended to Dem politicians who benefited from Weinstein’s largesse. Hillary Clinton in particular got blasted in some circles for days-long silence after the New York Times opened the floodgates with a report that Weinstein paid off sexual harassment accusers for decades. Critics noted her presidential bid had focused heavily on empowering women.
Biden took fire too, having written the Violence Against Women Act. His first remarks in NYC came six days after the NYT report.
“Sexual assault is not about sex. It is about power,” Biden said. “It’s about the abuse of power. And it’s about deeply embedded attitudes in our culture that, for a thousand years of shame the victims, allowed the perpetrators to escape the consequences of their actions.”
Biden described the “disgusting conduct and behavior of a very powerful figure in Hollywood – a man who had the power to make or break the career of a number of very talented actors; a man who used that power in a disgusting and immoral way.” And he commended the women who put their careers at risk in order that “this disgusting behavior, at least on the part of Harvey Weinstein, has been brought to an abrupt and justifiable end.”