‘I believe Tara’

Rep. Omar supports accuser vs. Biden

Believing survivors is consistent with my values.

— Rep. Ilhan Omar (right, D-Minn.) on Tara Reade (below), who has accused Joe Biden of a sexual assault

Rep. Ilhan Omar said in a new interview that she finds the sexual-assault claims leveled against Joe Biden by a former aide to be credible.

“I do believe [Tara] Reade,” the Minnesota congresswoman told The Sunday Times of London.

“Justice can be delayed, but should never be denied.”

Reade, a former staffer for Biden during his days as a senator, has publicly alleged that he forced himself on her inside his Senate office in 1993, snarling, “I want to f- -k you.”

If it were up to her, Omar told the publication, Biden wouldn’t receive the Democratic Party’s nomination for president, as he is all but certain to do.

Omar, a progressive first-term lawmaker, previously endorsed and campaigned for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who in April dropped out of the race and endorsed Biden.

Biden has flatly denied Reade’s allegations and said that Americans should “vote their heart.”

“If they believe Tara Reade, they probably shouldn’t vote for me,” the presumptive Democratic nominee told MSNBC earlier this month.

“I wouldn’t vote for me if I believed Tara Reade,” he added.

Omar’s assessment marked a break from much of the Democratic establishment, which has largely circled the wagons around Biden, with control of the White House at stake.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has said that she believes Biden and is “proud” to support his bid for the presidency.

And Tom Perez, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, shrugged off calls to vet the allegations, contending that Biden’s background was already sufficiently probed when he was tapped to serve as vice president under Barack Obama.

In a Monday tweet responding to criticism of the take, however, Omar said that she was fully prepared to vote for Biden in November.

“Believing survivors is consistent with my values,” she wrote. “Yes, I endorsed against Biden and I didn’t pick him as our nominee.

“I will vote for him and help him defeat Trump.”

Omar also addressed her own controversies in The Sunday Times’ interview, saying that she has “moved past” tweets accusing pro-Israel American Jews of

“pushing for allegiance to a foreign country,” remarks widely panned as anti-Semitic.

“My expression of those things was hurtful to people. That has really broken my heart,” she said.

“I talk about Saudi blood money and them being bloodsuckers and no one says, ‘This is Islamophobic’,” she continued.

“But I know if I use those terms for another country, that could be [a problem].

“And so you learn what history is tied to words.

“As someone who didn’t have an understanding, I now do.”