What we know about sexual assault allegation against Biden
Former staffer Tara Reade says she was groped by the presidential candidate in 1993
WASHINGTON – It's been about a month since Tara Rea de, a former staffer to Joe Biden when he served in the Senate, publicly aired her allegation of sexual assault against the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
Reade claims that Bid en assaulted her in the Capitol building in 1993, when she worked as an aide. Biden's campaign has denied the assault took place and encouraged the press to investigate, though the candidate has yet to react publicly to Reade's allegation.
Meanwhile, additional people who say they were told about the alleged assault around that time have come forward to corroborate Read e' s story. On Monday, Business Insider reported that a former neighbor of Reade's from the 1990s and a former coworker in a California state senator's office recalled Reade describing parts of her account.
The assault allegation now lingers as Biden all but certainly claims the nomination a nd pi c ks up endorsements from major figures like former President Barack Obama, 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, and his biggest competitor in the 2020 race, Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Here's what we know about it so far:
Who is Tara Reade?
Tara Rea de worked for Biden for about eight months in 1992 and 1993 as an assistant, which included supervising interns, according to reporting by The New York Times. It was in the spring of `93 that Reade says Biden assaulted her.
After Reade says she complained to supervisors about harassment, but not assault, she had her responsibilities scaled back as a result until she was eventually told to find a new j ob. In interviews with the Associated Press and The New York Times, Reade was inconsistent in naming the supervisor who told her to move on. Former Biden staffers in supervising roles at the time interviewed by news outlets say t hey don't recall a report of that nature ever being filed or discussing it with her.
“I never once witnessed, or heard of, or received, any reports of inappropriate conduct, period – not from Ms. Reade, not from anyone,” Biden's former executive assistant Marianne Baker told AP in a statement through his campaign.
Reade is now a single mother who changed her name after fleeing an abusive marriage in the late1990s, the Times reported. She has since worked as an advocate for domestic violence survivors and for animal rescue organizations.
What are the allegations?
A year ago, Rea de spoke to media about claims Bid en had inappropriately touched her while she worked for him in the Senate, as part of a group of eight women who said Bid en had a habit of inappropriate physical displays of affection. At the time, Reade didn't mention the assault and Biden said he'd be “more mindful.”
But last month, Reade said first on “The Katie Hal per Show” and in subsequent media interviews that while she was t asked with delivering a gym bag to the former senator, Bid en pinned her against a wall and digitally penetrated her without her consent in the basement of a Capitol Hill office.
“He was whispering to me and trying to kiss me at the same time, and he was saying, `Do you want to go somewhere else?'” Reade told AP. “I remember wanting to say stop, but I don't know if I said it out loud or if I just thought it. I was kind of frozen up.”
When she pulled away, Reade says Biden looked surprised and said, “Come on, man, I heard you liked me.”
Reade said she wasn't aware of any witnesses to the incident but that she filed a report in the Senate and complained to supervisors. She claims she was retaliated against, but former Biden employees dispute that.