Biden denies sexual assault allegation
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden denied on Friday that he sexually assaulted a former U.S. Senate aide in 1993, in his first public remarks on the subject after he faced intense pressure to address the accusation.
“No, It is not true. I’m saying unequivocally it never, never happened,” Biden said in an interview on MSNBC when asked if he assaulted his aide.
A California woman named Tara Reade, who worked as a staff assistant in Biden’s Senate office from December 1992 to August 1993, has accused Biden in media interviews of pinning her against a wall in 1993, reaching under her skirt and pushing his fingers inside her.
Biden, 77, who will be the Democratic nominee to face Republican President Donald Trump, 73, in the Nov. 3 U.S. election, has faced growing pressure from within and outside his party to directly address the accusation.
In a statement before the interview, Biden called on the U.S. Senate to ask the National Archives to release any personnel records that could indicate whether the aide filed a complaint against Biden at the time.
He said that personal papers from his Senate years, which were donated to the University of Delaware and have yet to be made available to the public, do not contain any personnel files.
Biden said he was not aware of any complaint against him by the aide and he had not asked anyone to sign a nondisclosure agreement. He said he would not question Reade’s motive and did not know why she had made the complaint.
Reuters has not been able to independently confirm Reade’s accusation and also was unable to reach Reade or a representative for her for comment.
In recent years, more than a dozen women have accused Trump of making unwanted sexual advances against them. In all instances, they claimed the purported misconduct occurred years before he entered politics. Trump has denied the accusations, accusing rival Democrats and the media of a smear campaign.
“I think he should respond,” Trump said of Biden at a media briefing on Thursday ahead of the Biden interview. “It could be false accusations. I know all about false accusations.”
Several news outlets that have published Reade’s account, including the New York Times and the Washington Post, have interviewed a friend who said Reade told her about the alleged assault at the time. Another friend told the Times that Reade told her in 2008 about a previous traumatic incident involving Biden. Reade’s brother also confirmed parts of Reade’s account to The Intercept and the Post.