Biden accuser clarifies complaint details
I was too scared to write about alleged sexual assault, Tara Reade says
WASHINGTON — A former U.S. Senate staffer who alleges Joe Biden sexually assaulted her says she filed a limited report with a congressional personnel office that did not explicitly accuse him of sexual assault or harassment.
“I remember talking about him wanting me to serve drinks because he liked my legs and thought I was pretty and it made me uncomfortable,” Tara Reade said in an interview with the Associated Press on Friday.
“I know that I was too scared to write about the sexual assault.”
Reade said she described her issues with Biden, but “the main word I used — and I know I didn’t use ‘sexual harassment’ — I used ‘uncomfortable.’ And I remember ‘retaliation.’ ”
Reade described the report after the AP discovered additional transcripts and notes from its interviews with Reade last year in which she said she “chickened out” after going to the Senate personnel office. The AP interviewed Reade in 2019 after she accused Biden of uncomfortable and inappropriate touching in an alleged incident 27 years ago. She did not raise allegations of sexual assault against Biden until this year, about the time Biden became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
The existence of the Senate report has become a key element of the accusations against Biden, which he has flatly denied.
Reade said she doesn’t have a copy of the report. Biden said Friday that he is not aware that any complaint against him exists. He asked the Senate and the U.S. National Archives to search their records to try to locate a complaint from Reade.
But Reade suggested that even if the report surfaces, it would not corroborate her assault allegations because she chose not to detail them at the time.
According to a transcript of her 2019 interview with the AP, Reade said: “They have this counselling office or something, and I think I walked in there once, but then I chickened out.” She made a similar statement in a second interview with AP that same day.
On Friday, Reade said she was referring to having “chickened out” by not filing full harassment or assault allegations against Biden. In interviews with the AP on Friday, Reade insisted she filed an “intake form” at the Senate personnel office, which included her contact information, the office she worked for and broad details of her issues with Biden.
Reade was one of eight women who came forward last year with allegations that Biden made them feel uncomfortable with inappropriate displays of affection. Biden acknowledged the complaints and promised to be “more mindful about respecting personal space.”
During one of the April 2019 interviews with the AP, she said Biden rubbed her shoulders and neck and played with her hair.
She said of Biden: “I wasn’t scared of him, that he was going to take me in a room or anything. It wasn’t that kind of vibe.”
The AP reviewed notes of its 2019 interviews with Reade after she came forward in March with allegations of sexual assault against Biden.
But reporters discovered an additional transcript and notes from those interviews on Friday.