If you told a casual, left-leaning political observer in late 2018 that in less than two years, the Democratic Party would be softer on a high-level politician accused of sexual assault than the GOP were on Donald Trump, they would probably have laughed in your face. And yet, as the increasingly credible sexual assault allegation against presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden roils his still budding campaign for the presidency, this is exactly what has happened.

When Trump’s infamous Access Hollywood tape leaked on October 7, 2016 — a mere one month out from the election — showing him openly bragging about how he would “grab [women] by the pussy” without consent, it was swiftly met with a chorus of voices from the GOP condemning the Republican candidate and calling on him to drop out.

Now, as Biden stands accused by a former staffer of subjecting her to exactly the same behavior in a Senate office in 1993, he has faced no such response from liberal and Democratic quarters. Instead, Democrats and their affiliates have rallied around their candidate, only doubling down as the allegations have been further corroborated.