Joe Biden sexual assault allegation

"Tara Reade" redirects here. For the actress, see Tara Reid.

Tara Reade, circa 1993

In March 2020, Tara Reade alleged that former U.S. senator and 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden sexually assaulted her in a Capitol Hill office building when she was a staff assistant in his office in 1993. His campaign team denied the allegation and former Senate staff said they do not remember any such prior complaints.

NPR described "some of" Reade's accounts as "inconsistent". Current Affairs described them as "completely consistent". Politico said the allegation entered the mainstream "just as Biden seeks to unite a fractious Democratic Party behind him." Its coverage has stirred controversy.

Background

From December 1992 to August 1993, Tara Reade, then 29, was a staff assistant in Joe Biden's Senate office with responsibilities such as supervision of the office's interns and mail delivery. Also known as Alexandra Tara Reade, she is a writer from Nevada County, California, who helps run nonprofit organizations. She earned a law degree from Seattle University School of Law but has not practiced law.

In 2009, Reade attributed her past departure from Washington, D.C. to moving to the Midwestern United States with a boyfriend. In 2018, she wrote that she departed Washington, D.C. to become an actress and artiste, due to being disillusioned with the American government's "xenophobia" towards Russia.

April 2019 essay in The Union

In early April 2019, Reade contacted a reporter for The Union, a local newspaper in Grass Valley, California, which published her essay on April 17, in which she describes her encounter with Biden:"...this is not a story about sexual misconduct; it is a story about abuse of power." She added, "Sen. Biden would touch me on the shoulder or hold his hand on my shoulder running his index finger up my neck during a meeting … What started with promise and possibility, ended because some prominent Senator decided that he liked my legs and objectified me." She said he touched her shoulder and neck while she worked in his U.S. Senate office. She said she did not feel she was a victim of sexualization, but instead she compared herself being treated like an inanimate object, "a lamp." She explained, "It’s pretty. Set it over there. Then when it’s too bright, you throw it away." She further stated that she was reassigned office duties after she told her immediate boss she would not serve drinks at an event. She said opting against serving drinks sidelined her career. She made the allegation after watching an episode of the The View on April 1, in which Nevada politician Lucy Flores had alleged that Biden sniffed her hair and kissed the back of her head shortly before a political rally in 2014.

In January–February 2020, Reade sought help regarding the elements of her allegations from Time's Up Legal Defense Fund. The Fund ultimately declined to assist her, having determined that Internal Revenue Service restrictions on nonprofit organizations prohibit it from involvement in politics or elections.

Allegation

In March 2020, Reade alleged that Biden had pushed her against a wall and penetrated her with his fingers in a Capitol Hill office building in 1993. She said this in an interview with Katie Halper which was released as a podcast on March 25, 2020. Reade later told NPR, "His hands went underneath my clothing and he was touching me in my private areas and without my consent." She said that when she pulled away, he looked puzzled and said, "Come on, man, I heard you liked me," then told her that "You're nothing to me, nothing."

In April, The New York Times published an interview with Reade, where she said that after the penetration incident, she had complained about harassment to three of Biden's aides (Marianne Baker, Dennis Toner, and Ted Kaufman) but did not mention the assault. She said this did nothing, so she wrote a complaint to a Senate personnel office. She said her office duties were reduced, and she was later fired by Kaufman. In blog posts in January and April 2020, she wrote that no one in Washington, D.C. wanted to hire her after her firing.

Addressing why she made her allegation public, Reade said during her March interview, "I'm hoping by coming forward with this—and I know it's hard to listen to, and it's hard to live in it, right? But my justice now, the only justice I can have, is to be moving freely in the world and to heal and not be silenced." On April 9, she filed a police report with the Washington Metropolitan Police Department alleging she was sexually assaulted in spring 1993. NPR reported that a record of the police report named Biden as the assailant. The Washington Metropolitan Police said on April 25 that her complaint is an inactive case. She acknowledged that the statute of limitations has lapsed, and she stated that she filed the report "for safety reasons only."

Denial

As of April, Biden has not personally addressed the allegation. In March, a deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield, said, "Vice President Biden has dedicated his public life to changing the culture and the laws around violence against women. He authored and fought for the passage and reauthorization of the landmark Violence Against Women Act. He firmly believes that women have a right to be heard — and heard respectfully. Such claims should also be diligently reviewed by an independent press. What is clear about this claim: It is untrue. This absolutely did not happen."

On April 12, Marianne Baker, Biden’s former executive assistant, said "I never once witnessed, or heard of, or received, any reports of inappropriate conduct, period — not from Ms. Reade, not from anyone. I have absolutely no knowledge or memory of Ms. Reade’s accounting of events, which would have left a searing impression on me as a woman professional, and as a manager.” Ted Kaufman, who was his chief of staff at the time, said: "I did not know her. She did not come to me. If she had, I would have remembered her." Former staff assistant Melissa Lefko remembers the office as a "very supportive environment for women." She said, "When you work on the Hill, everyone knows who the good guys are and who the bad guys are, and Biden was a good guy." Former deputy chief of staff Dennis Toner said "It's just so preposterous that Senator Biden would be faced with these allegations. I don’t remember her. I don’t remember this conversation. And I would remember this conversation."

Developments

Corroborating statements from non-witnesses

The following is a list of people who said Reade talked to them about her allegations prior to April 2019.

• In 2019 an anonymous friend told The Union that Reade told her in 1993 that Biden would "put his hand on [her] shoulder and run his finger up [her] neck."
• Collin Moulton, Reade's brother, initially told The Washington Post that she told him in 1993 that Biden had touched her neck and shoulders. He said there was "a gym bag incident", and that Biden "was inappropriate". Several days after that interview, Moulton told the Post that Reade in the early 1990s told him Biden put his hand "under her clothes." Moulton was also interviewed by ABC News, which he told Reade told him about "harassment at work" by Biden, but only heard about the assault in 2020. Hours after the interview, he added he had heard from Reade in 1993 that Biden had "more or less cornered her against the wall" and "put his hands up her clothes".
• An anonymous friend told The New York Times that Reade told her in 1993 that Biden put his hand up her skirt during an unwanted encounter.
• An anonymous friend told The New York Times that Reade told her in 2008 that Biden had touched her inappropriately.
• Lynda LaCasse, Reade's former neighbor, told CNN Reade told her in 1995 or 1996 about an alleged assault, wherein Biden “kind of put her up against a wall. And he put his hand up her skirt."
• Lorraine Sanchez worked with Reade in California State Senator Jack O’Connell’s office between 1994 and 1996, and told Business Insider Reade told her she was fired after voicing her concerns to her immediate boss.

The New York Times' investigative reporting

On April 12, The New York Times released an analysis of its investigative reporting in which it interviewed Reade, several of her friends, lawyers, nearly two dozen people who worked with Biden in the early 1990s, and seven women who accused him of kissing, hugging, or touching them in ways that had made them feel uncomfortable. It said it found no other allegations of sexual assault in the course of its reporting. Several of the seven women said that they believed her, but had no new knowledge about the incident. Two friends reported to The New York Times that she had told them of the alleged assault (one in 1993 shortly after the alleged assault took place, the other in 2008). Her brother said she had previously told him.

Biden's Senate Chief of Staff and Deputy Chief of Staff during 1992–1993 and the office's long-term executive assistant expressed doubts as to the veracity of Reade's account, saying they would have recalled the complaints had she made them, and that such behavior seemed uncharacteristic of him. Melissa Lefko, a contemporary staff assistant, said she had never experienced harassment and thought his office was a "very supportive environment for women." Reade said she reported sexual harassment to her supervisors in Biden's office at the time, but her recollection of to whom has shifted and none of her former supervisors recall any such event.

The Times later published another story about the allegation, which included a statement that the Biden campaign released talking points that mischaracterized its earlier investigation. The Times reiterated that it "made no conclusion either way".

Biden senatorial records

Reade requested all records, including human resource, from Biden’s senate terms be released. Several journalists echoed her request.

Biden's senatorial records are currently housed by the University of Delaware, his alma mater. When he gave the university the records in 2012, it announced it would make them "available to the public two years after Biden’s last day in elected public office." On April 24, 2019, the day before he announced his 2020 presidential campaign, it revised its plans and said it would release them that December 31, if he retired before then. As he did not, the records are now to be released two years after he retires.

Media coverage

On March 28, The Guardian columnist Arwa Mahdawi wrote an op-ed: "Why has the media ignored sexual assault allegations against Biden?" She expressed that it is frustrating to see conservatives "weaponize the accusations" and liberals "turning a blind eye". The editorial board of The Washington Post published an op-ed on April 29, that called on him to directly respond, saying "Tara Reade deserves to be heard, and voters deserve to hear her. They deserve to hear from Joe Biden, too."

The New York Times was criticized by several commentators who said it delayed coverage of the allegation and argued its coverage differed from reporting on other allegations in the past. Its executive editor, Dean Baquet, published an op-ed on April 13, responding to these criticisms. Baquet responded to a controversy about a line in the news story that was removed after the piece's initial publication. The sentence previously read: "The Times found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Biden, beyond the hugs, kisses and touching that women previously said made them uncomfortable." Baquet explained that it had been included originally in order not to falsely imply that other individuals had made allegations as invasive in nature as Reade's, but was thereafter removed because of "awkward phrasing issue that could be read different ways." Baquet stated that the edit was made after the Biden campaign had objected to it because "[it] made it look like there were other instances in which he had been accused of sexual misconduct."

Allegation characterization

Joan Walsh, writing in The Nation, said the allegation "doesn't stand up to close scrutiny". NPR noted that she changed her story over time and that some of the details she provided have been "inconsistent", citing the fact that in 2019 she did not mention sexual assault, but only harassment. She said she did not share her full allegation when she initially came forward because, in part, she "just didn't have the courage", and that after publicly alleging that he had touched her inappropriately, she said she received death threats and a "wave of criticism" and was doxed. Katie Halper denied the story changed, writing in the The Guardian, "in fact Reade provided more details over time, something that is common among survivors of sexual assault."

In response to similar claims from Amanda Marcotte of Salon regarding inconsistencies in Reade's account, Nathan J. Robinson of Current Affairs mentioned that he had talked to her extensively and that she was "completely consistent". He said "gradually opening up about the parts of your story that are the most difficult to tell is very different from altering it", and that it is "how survivors tell stories". He said while Marcotte was interviewing Reade, he warned her that Marcotte appeared to be biased, "and recommended being cautious about her".

On April 29, former federal prosecutor Michael J. Stern, writing in USA Today, outlined thirteen reasons why, despite what he calls his default response of believing women, he is skeptical of Reade's allegation. These are her twice-delayed reporting, her implausible explanation for her changing story, people who contradict her claim, the missing formal complaint, her memory lapse, her lie about losing her job, her compliments for Biden, her embrace of Bernie Sanders, her love of Russia and Putin, the suspect timing of the allegation, problems with the Larry King call, problems with those who claim to support her accusations and the lack of other sexual assault allegations against Biden.

Reactions

On April 14, in an online conversation with The Wing, U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that it was legitimate to discuss this allegation, saying silencing of dissent was a form of gaslighting. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a national co-chair of Biden's campaign, said, "I think women should be able to tell their stories. I think that it is important that these allegations are vetted." U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said she stands by him, and does not see a contradiction between how Democratic legislators addressed this allegation and those of Christine Blasey Ford.

U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi voiced strong support for Biden, calling him a "a person of great integrity", while acknowledging her support for the Me Too movement.

External links

Multimedia

• Halper, Katie (March 30, 2020). "Biden accuser: "I wanted to be a senator; I didn't want to sleep with one" (audio)". Katie Halper podcast.
• Krystal Ball (March 26, 2020). "Tara Reade discusses Biden allegation with Hill.TV's Rising". The Hill (video interview). Rising.
• Larry King (August 11, 1993). Washington: The Cruelest City on Earth? (video which includes a call from a San Luis Obispo, California, woman about daughter's departure from job working for an unnamed U.S. Senator). Larry King Live. CNN. Archived from the original on April 24, 2020.