Once again, Team Obama can't keep itself out of the annual Academy Awards show. The White House announced Thursday that Vice President Biden will appear to introduce Lady Gaga singing an Oscar-nominated song about sexual assault.
Biden, hailed as the shepherd of the "Violence Against Women Act," voted against both the perjury and obstruction-of-justice counts in the Clinton impeachment trial, despite Clinton settling with his sexual harassment victim Paula Jones for $850,000.
As Christi Parsons reported in the Los Angeles Times:
Biden, who was the main author of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act during his career in the Senate, will introduce Lady Gaga for a performance of her nominated song, "Til It Happens to You," an administration official told The Times. The singer co-wrote the piece, which is about campus sexual assault, with songwriter Diane Warren for the documentary film "The Hunting Ground."
Biden has been one of the main advocates for the administration's "It's On Us" campaign, which is aimed at raising awareness about the problem of sexual violence on American campuses. The campaign asks students to take a pledge to intervene instead of being bystanders if a sexual assault is taking place, to recognize that sexual contact without consent is an assault and a crime, and to support survivors and make sexual assault unacceptable...
After introducing Lady Gaga, Biden will ask viewers and members of the audience in the theater to visit ItsOnUs.org and take the pledge.
Can someone get the Clintons to take this pledge? For Paula, for Kathleen, for Juanita?
To recognize that non-consensual sex is sexual assault.
To identify situations in which sexual assault may occur.
To intervene in situations where consent has not or cannot be given.
Speaking of clumsy male assaults, here's hoping the vice president doesn't grip Gaga on the shoulders the way he's greeted Cabinet spouses....
President Obama appeared on the Oscars in a taped clip in 2011. Michelle Obama announced an Oscar winner from the White House in 2013.
