US Democratic Candidate Biden Denies Sexually Assaulting Staff Assistant Tara Reade
WASHINGTON– US Democratic candidate Joe Biden has flatly denied sexually assaulting a former staff assistant, Tara Reade, nearly 30 years ago.
“I’m saying unequivocally: it never, never happened,” he said of the allegations during a TV interview on Friday.
He asked for a search of the Senate archives for any record of a complaint Ms Reade allegedly filed at the time.
Ms Reade made a criminal complaint to police last month.
She said she was a victim of sexual assault without naming Mr Biden. The police complaint, she said, was filed “for safety reasons only” as the statute of limitations for her claim had expired.
Mr Biden is running against Republican President Donald Trump, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by some 25 women.
The Democrat put out his statement before speaking on Morning Joe, a show on US cable channel MSNBC.
What are Reade’s accusations?
She was working as a staff assistant to Mr Biden from 1992-93, when he was a senator for the US state of Delaware.
Ms Reade, now 56, says that in 1993 he forced her up against a wall in the halls of Congress, and put his hands under her shirt and skirt, penetrating her with a finger.
“I remember him saying, first, as he was doing it ‘Do you want to go somewhere else?’ and then him saying to me, when I pulled away… he said ‘Come on man, I heard you liked me,'” she told podcast host Katie Halper in March. “That phrase stayed with me.”
Image copyrightSCOTT OLSONMs Reade says records of Mr Biden’s 36-year career as a US senator will contain evidence that she complained to her superiors about him.
The records are being held at the University of Delaware, which has said it will not release any papers until two years after Mr Biden leaves public life.
It appears there were no witnesses to the alleged assault but three people have backed Ms Reade’s account.
Her brother, a former neighbour and a former colleague have all said that they heard her give it shortly after the alleged incident.
Former neighbour Lynda LaCasse told Business Insider: “This happened, and I know it did because I remember talking about it.”
“I remember her saying, here was this person that she was working for and she idolised him,” Ms LaCasse said. “I remember the skirt. I remember the fingers. I remember she was devastated.”
Ms Reade is one of more than half a dozen women who have forward over the last year to accuse him of inappropriate touching, hugging or kissing, though none described his actions as sexual assault at the time.
What did Biden say?
Speaking to MSNBC’s Mika Brezezinski on Friday, the former vice-president denied any sexual misconduct against Tara Reade outright.
“It did not happen. Period,” he said.
Brezezinski pressed Mr Biden on his former statements suggesting that women should be believed when coming forward with their stories of sexual violence.
In 2018, when now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was accused of sexual assault by Christine Blasey Ford, Mr Biden was joined by a chorus of top Democrats in supporting Dr Ford’s claims, and insisting that she be heard.
“For a woman to come forward in the glaring light of focus, nationally, you’ve got to start off with the presumption that at least the essence of what she’s talking about is real, whether or not she forgets the facts, whether or not it’s been made worse or better over time,” Mr Biden told reporters at the time.
“Are women to be believed unless it pertains to you?” Brezezinski asked Mr Biden on Friday.
“Women are to be believed, given the benefit of the doubt,” Mr Biden said. “Then you have to look at the circumstances and the facts.”
“The truth matters.”
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESMr Biden refused to speculate on Ms Reade’s motives, saying she had a right to come forward “and say whatever she wants to say. But I have a right to say: ‘Look at the facts.'”
But the former vice-president said that his files housed at the University of Delaware contained no personnel information that would pertain to Ms Reade. Despite repeated questioning from Brezezinski, Mr Biden insisted those 1,800 boxes of documents did not contain any personnel files and would be used as political “fodder” for his ongoing presidential campaign.
Shortly after his MSNBC interview, Mr Biden wrote a letter to the secretary of the US Senate asking the office to check its files for any record of Ms Reade’s complaint.
Mr Biden asks in the letter for “assistance in determining whether 27 years ago a staff member in my United States Senate office filed a complaint alleging sexual harassment” and whether it is located in the US National Archives.
The letter asks that any unearthed documents be made public and that “the public release include not only a complaint if one exists, but any and all other documents in the records that relate to the allegation”.
SOURCE: BBC NEWS
