Biden says ex-staffer’s sex assault claims false
Alleged incident in 1990s ‘never, never happened,’ Democrat maintains
WASHINGTON—Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Friday emphatically denied allegations from a former U.S. Senate staffer that he sexually assaulted her in the early 1990s, declaring flatly “this never happened.”
Biden’s first public remarks on the allegation by a former employee, Tara Reade, come at a critical moment for the presumptive Democratic nominee as he tries to relieve mounting pressure after weeks of leaving denials to his campaign.
“I’m saying unequivocally, it never, never happened,” Biden said in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Biden said he will ask the National Archives to determine whether there is any record of a complaint being filed, as Reade has claimed. He said the Archives was the only possible place a complaint would be, and that his Senate papers held under seal at the University of Delaware do not contain personnel records. “The former staffer has said she filed a complaint back in 1993,” Biden said. “But she does not have a record of this alleged complaint.”
The Archives deflected inquiries to Capitol Hill, saying, “Senate personnel complaints from 1993 would have remained under the control of the Senate.” A spokesperson for the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights said confidentiality rules bar the office from commenting on “whether specific claims may or may not have been filed.”
Biden, in his TV interview, said “there are so many inconsistencies” in Reade’s various accounts. But he said he does not “question her motive.” He said over his five decades in public life, none of his employees was asked to sign a nondisclosure agreement.
Republicans worried about U.S. President Donald Trump’s increasingly precarious political standing are casting Democrats as only defending women who allege wrongdoing against conservatives. They’re digging in despite the possibility of renewed attention on the multiple sexual assault allegations lodged against Trump, who denies the accusations.
In light of his own situation, Trump himself is stepping delicately around the Biden controversy. “He’s going to have to make his own decision,” Trump said in a podcast interview Friday with Dan Bongino. “I’m not going to be telling him what to do.” The president added that it would be a “great thing” if Biden had records that could “dispose” of Reade’s allegation.
Democrats, meanwhile, are in an awkward position of validating women who come forward with their stories while defending Biden in what many in the party consider the most important election of their lifetimes.
Former Democratic National Committee chairperson Donna Brazile said Biden’s silence before the interview had been“damaging,” but said he handled the matter well on Friday. “He responded, he denied it, and there’s nothing more to be added to it,” she said, before alluding to Reade’s repeated public statements.
“If you add to the story the way Tara Reade has, it only brings more confusion.”
The November presidential election will be the first of the #MeToo era, during which numerous women have publicly disclosed experiences of sexual harassment and assault.
Women are a core constituency for Democrats. Biden wrote the Violence Against Women Act as a senator, but came under criticism for his handling of Anita Hill’s 1991 Senate testimony against now-Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Just before he launched his 2020 campaign, Biden apologized after several women said he’d made them uncomfortable with unwanted touching. He has pledged to pick a woman as a running mate, and the Reade allegation has left those thought to be in contention in a tough spot.