A woman who claimed Joe Biden sexually harassed her is now adding that the former Vice President sexually assaulted her as well.
Tara Reade briefly worked for Biden back in the 1900s when he was a senator for Delaware and committee chairman. Reade came forward last month with harassment allegations against Biden, but now she claims the now Democratic presidential candidate sexually assaulted her by penetrating her with his fingers under her skirt in 1993. The woman was employed as Biden’s staff assistant in his Capitol Hill office, NBC 4 reports. ⠀⠀
Reade, who first went public with her allegations on March 25, told NBC that she has conveyed her story to five other people since the incident. The outlet reports that three of those people deny ever having a conversation with Reade about it. The fourth person said Reade told them about the assault when it happened, and the fifth person says Reade informed them about the incident in the mid-2000s but didn’t detail the assault.
Reade claims she told Biden’s former employees, including his former chief of staff #TedKaufman and his longtime executive assistant #MarianneBaker of the incident. However, the two say they have no memory of ever having the conversation. Biden has maintained that he did not assault or harass Reade, and his campaign said the alleged assault “absolutely did not happen.” But the woman also claims to have written a formal complaint through the Senate personnel office at the time. In that original complaint, she did not state that she was assaulted.
Washington D.C. police received Reade’s updated official complaint Thursday evening. The one-page document doesn’t name Biden but detailed an assault that happened at some point between March 1 and May 31 in 1993. NBC reports that Reade confirmed that she is “Subject-1” in the report and that “Subject-2” is Biden. The statute of limitations has passed for Reade’s alleged allegations against Biden.
During an interview, Reade claimed the incident happened when she was instructed to deliver a gym bag to Biden after the two met up in an empty corridor within the Capitol complex. “I greeted him, and there was no small talk. He smiled at me, and then he just had me up against the wall.” The woman said that’s when Biden began kissing her and moving his hands up her skirt, using his knee to spread her legs. “Do you want to go somewhere else,” she recalled him asking her. Reade said she eventually pulled away, which made Biden react abusively, claiming he said, “You’re nothing. You’re nothing to me.” Reade said he quickly changed his tune and reassured her saying, “You’re fine, you’re fine, you’re OK” before walking away. “I remember wanting to say ‘stop.’ But I don’t think I said it. I don’t know if I thought it or said it,” Reade said.
