The former vice president issued a statement Friday morning insisting that the alleged incident “never happened.”
Former Vice President Joe Biden on Friday emphatically denied a decades-old accusation of sexual assault leveled by a former staffer in his Senate office, breaking more than a month of silence on the allegation.
“They aren’t true. This never happened,” Biden said of the accusations made by former staffer Tara Reade.
Reade has told multiple media outlets, including POLITICO, that Biden assaulted her in a Senate hallway in 1993 when she worked for the then-senator.
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In his statement, the former vice president not only pointed out that Reade has changed her story over time, he emphasized that she didn’t have documentation of her claim that she filed a complaint against him in 1993 in the Senate.
“While the details of these allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault are complicated, two things are not complicated. One is that women deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and when they step forward they should be heard, not silenced,” Biden said. “The second is that their stories should be subject to appropriate inquiry and scrutiny. Responsible news organizations should examine and evaluate the full and growing record of inconsistencies in her story, which has changed repeatedly in both small and big ways.”
Reade, however, does have some documents from her time in the Senate that she has shown reporters to prove she worked there at the time. But the Senate does not have the complaint that Reade said she filed.
Biden had furnished his work papers to the University of Delaware because “it is the practice of Senators to establish a library of personal papers that document their public record: speeches, policy proposals, positions taken, and the writing of bills.” He said any personnel record like the one Reade alleges existed would not be at the university in his work papers.
“There is only one place a complaint of this kind could be – the National Archives. The National Archives is where the records are kept at what was then called the Office of Fair Employment Practices,” Biden wrote. “I am requesting that the Secretary of the Senate ask the Archives to identify any record of the complaint she alleges she filed and make available to the press any such document. If there was ever any such complaint, the record will be there.”
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Joe Biden breaks his silence on Tara Reade’s sexual assault allegations: “They aren’t true. This never happened.” https://t.co/sK3redEc7C
— POLITICO (@politico) May 1, 2020
World News Tonight on ABC had a story about Miss Reade’s allegations. Now of course, ABC favors Biden, but the story made the point that yes, there are some inconsistencies and problems with this woman’s story. Two things stick out in my mind. One is that Reade claims she reported the incident to three people in administrative positions in the senate, but these people deny or don’t recall her doing so. There was also an initial interview with her brother where he made some vague references to her claim, but in later interviews he went into more detail. Sounds like his sister or someone on her behalf told him he has to give more forceful support to her allegations.
I find it odd that people, particularly those in the Trump camp, are buying Reade’s allegations, even though her claims are much like those of the women who made accusations against Justice Kavanaugh and Roy Moore. All three incidents are very similar — complainants come forward decades after alleged assaults occurred, none of these accusers went to the police at the time of the supposed incident and none of them have evidence or any direct witnesses to the alleged assault. Why would those who did not believe Moore and Kavanaugh’s accusers believe Biden’s accuser? Sounds like partisan politics to me.
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