After Tara Reade’s sexual assault allegations against Joe Biden gained more credibility in the past week, the presumptive Presidential nominee has directly addressed Reade’s claims for the first time. During an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Friday morning, Biden said Reade’s allegations are “not true,” and it appears that many vocal members of the #MeToo movement believe him.
“It is not true,” Biden told Mika Brzezinski. “I’m saying it unequivocally: It never, never happened. And it didn’t. It never happened.”
Reade came forward with her story more than a month ago on The Katie Halper Show podcast, and Biden had previously denied her claims via a statement from a campaign spokeswoman. Biden’s campaign also noted that other aides in his office disputed Reade’s story, and they say that the former Vice President has no history of anyone making any kind of assault or harassment claims against him during his nearly five-decade career in Washington D.C.
However, Reade – who was a junior staffer in Biden’s Senate office in 1992 and 1993 – says that she did file a harassment claim at the time, but she didn’t report the alleged assault. Reade claims that Biden kissed her and penetrated her with his fingers in the hallway of a Capitol Hill building when she was tasked with delivering him a gym bag.
“He just had me up against the wall,” Reade told Halper. “The wall was cold. I remember it happened all at once. The gym bag, I don’t know where it went, I handed it to him and it was gone. And his hands were on me and underneath my clothes, and then he went down my skirt but then up inside it and he penetrated me with his fingers.”
"I don’t need a lecture or a speech.”
That was @SpeakerPelosi's response after the Washington Examiner's @KerryPicket asked if there was a double standard concerning sexual assault allegation against @JoeBiden. pic.twitter.com/b2Ftq3QTKT
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) April 30, 2020
After she didn’t cooperate with his alleged advances, Reade says that Biden told her he had heard she was into him and then got angry and told her she was “nothing.” Reade also claims that she told two women about the assault back in the 1990s, and both of those women have corroborated that claim. However, they could not prove or disprove the assault actually happened, just that Reade told them it did.
Reade also said that her mother called into CNN’s Larry King Live back in the 1990s and said her daughter had had problems with a US senator while working on his staff. Last week, the episode featuring Reade’s mother surfaced. Even though she didn’t name Biden in the phone call, she did say her daughter tried to report her situation but no one would help her.
In 1993, Tara Reade’s mother called Larry King
to blow the whistle on Joe Biden sexually assaulting her daughter.
Now, FOUR sources have corroborated Tara Reade’s story:
-Brother
-Friend
-Former neighbor
-Former colleague
Yes, FOUR sources. pic.twitter.com/MzeZudFl55
— #ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) April 28, 2020
Reade was originally one of several women who came forward in 2019 and said that Biden had made them physically uncomfortable because of his touching. She says that she filed a written complaint with the Senate personnel office, but it has not been located. All of Biden’s documents associated with his time as the Senator from Delaware are currently under lock and key at the University of Delaware.
Despite Reade’s allegations, the two corroborating witnesses, and the Larry King Live video, many vocal supporters of the #MeToo movement have endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 election, including Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, and actress Alyssa Milano.
Rose McGowan trashes 'fraud' Alyssa Milano for backing Biden amid assault claim, invokes Kavanaugh hypocrisy https://t.co/LCBnKsn1ik #FoxNews
— AiW – Alien in White (@alieninwhite) April 26, 2020
When a Washington Examiner reporter asked Pelosi this week why she stands with Biden instead of Reade, but supported Dr. Christina Blasey Ford who had a similar allegation against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the Speaker of the House said she had respect for the #MeToo movement, but she supports Biden.
“I respect your question, and I don’t need a lecture or a speech,” said Pelosi. “I have a complete respect for the whole ‘MeToo’ movement. I have four daughters and one son. And there’s a lot of excitement around the idea that women will be heard and be able to be listened to.”
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