Joe Biden Accused of Sexual Assault
Former staff assistant comes forward with disturbing allegation of sex abuse
© press
A former staff assistant has spoken out to accuse Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her.
The accuser, Tara Reade, has alleged that she was attacked and sexually violated by former Vice President Biden when she worked for him in 1993.
Reade made the allegation against Biden during an interview with journalist and podcaster Katie Harper, who released an audio clip of the conversation on Wednesday.
Ms. Reade says the assault occurred when she was instructed to rush a gym bag to then-Delaware Senator Biden, currently the Democratic presidential frontrunner.
Upon reaching Biden with the bag, Reade claims that he greeted her by name before forcing her into a “side area” and proceeding to sexually assault her.
“We were alone, and it was the strangest thing. There was no, like, exchange really, he just had me up against the wall,” Reade claims.
© press
Reade continues by revealing graphic details of the sexual assault.
“His hands were on me, and underneath my clothes,” Reade says later in the interview.
“He went down my skirt, but then up inside. He penetrated me with his fingers.”
Reade alleges that Biden was kissing her and asking her if she “wanted to go somewhere else.”
She says that after the alleged assault was over, he said, “C’mon man, I heard you liked me.”
Reade told Harper that Biden’s alleged phrase stuck with her because it made her think about what she “might have said.”
"For me, it was like everything shattered in that moment because I knew that we were alone. It was over, right?
"He wasn’t trying to do anything more – but I looked up to him, he was like my father’s age, he was like this champion of women’s rights in my eyes and I couldn’t believe it was happening.
"It seemed surreal.
"I just felt sick because when he pulled back, he looked annoyed, and he said something else to me that I don’t want to say, and then he said – I must have looked shocked …
"I don’t know how I looked, but I must have looked something because he grabbed me by the shoulders, and said, 'You’re okay. You’re fine. You’re okay. You’re fine,' and then he walked away, and went on with his day."
Reade recalls how she was later “shaking” in a stairwell and “trying to grasp what had just happened and what I should do or what I should say.”
When asked whether she wants to speak about what she alleges Biden said, Reade replied saying she was reluctant because it is “the thing that stays in my head.”
Regardless, she then continued by revealing to Harper what Biden allegedly said:
"He just like pointed at me and he said, 'You’re nothing to me!'
"And then he just looked at me and said, 'You’re nothing. Nothing.' …
"I must’ve reacted because that’s when he took me by the shoulders and he said, 'You’re okay. You’re fine. You’re okay.'"
Harper states at the beginning of the clip that there are no witnesses to the alleged assault by Biden.
She says, however, that “Tara’s brother and Tara’s close friend” both “recalled her telling them about the incident at the time.”
Listen to the audio clip from Katie Harper’s interview with Tara Reade here:
© press
Last April, several women came forward with stories of Biden acting inappropriately, perhaps the most infamous being that of Lucy Flores, who claimed that the former vice president kissed the back of her head and smelled her hair during a 2014 event, according to The Daily Wire.
At the time, Biden released the following statement in defense of himself:
Statement from @JoeBiden this morning. pic.twitter.com/EbCchX2npU
— Bill Russo (@BillR) March 31, 2019
In a piece by Ryan Grim published by The Intercept on Tuesday, the journalist writes about Reade bringing forward a story about Biden’s alleged inappropriate behavior toward her last year.
Reade first spoke with “a local reporter, describing several instances in which Biden had behaved similarly toward her, inappropriately touching her during her early-’90s tenure in his Senate office.”
The part of her story she decided to tell at the time was allegedly similar to Flores’, but the article resulted in negative feedback “along with accusations that she was doing the bidding of Russian President Vladimir Putin.”
Reade had previously written a piece for Medium, which has since been removed, in which she praised Vladimir Putin.
The article by the local reporter, published by The Union in April 2019, reads in part:
Alexandra Tara Reade said that in 1993 she was in her mid-20s when Biden, then a senator from Delaware, touched her several times making her feel uncomfortable.
Reade said her responsibilities in the senator’s office were reduced after she refused to serve drinks at an event – what she called a desire of Biden’s because he liked her legs.
Reade said she felt pushed out and left Biden’s employ in August 1993 after some nine months.
As the Democratic primary began in earnest, Reade, “who first supported Sen. Elizabeth Warren and then Sen. Bernie Sanders,” writes Grim, decided to seek help from TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund, an organization that “supports the brave individuals who have come forward, at great risk to themselves, to seek the justice they deserve and to protect others from similar behavior,” according to its official website.
“This Fund helps workers connect with lawyers and bring cases of workplace sexual harassment and related retaliation – regardless of industry, rank or role,” the website continues.
According to Reade, after an initial exchange that seemed fruitful, TIME’S UP later said that they couldn’t help her because the accused was running for president, and “assisting a case against him could jeopardize the organization’s nonprofit status,” writes Grim.
As of publication, Biden has yet to publicly acknowledge Reade’s latest allegation.
