Former Senate aide Tara Reade called on House Republicans to launch an investigation into allegations that she was sexually assaulted by then-Sen. Joe Biden in 1993, telling the Daily Caller that she would be willing to testify under oath.
“It would be a very different thing, if I could testify under oath,” Reade told the Caller, adding that she would “provide whatever information [Congress] needed and [Congress] could ask me whatever questions they wanted.”
“I think we need to have the conversation, instead of me being erased, and other women that were erased that tried to come forward,” Reade added, saying that House Republicans should launch an investigation while they have a majority.
Reade alleged that Biden sexually assaulted her in a Senate corridor in 1993 by pinging her against a wall and reaching under her clothing before sexually violating her. She said she filed a police report in 2020 about the incident, and that no thorough investigation has ever taken place.
Interns and others that worked alongside Reade in Biden’s Senate office denied knowing that any sexual misconduct took place between Reade and Biden, the New York Times reported in 2020, citing interviews with the former staffers. She could also not remember some details about the incident, including the exact time, date and location, according to the outlet.
Biden’s staffers who worked with Reade at the time, including aide Dennis Toner, chief of staff Ted Kaufman and executive assistant Marianne Baker, all denied that Reade came forward to them about the alleged sexual assault.
Toner and Kaufman told NPR in 2020 that they did not remember Reade and that she did not come to them about the allegations. Congressional records show that she worked for Biden for approximately nine months.
Baker issued a statement saying, “In all my years working for Senator Biden, 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. These clearly false allegations are in complete contradiction to both the inner workings of our Senate office and to the man I know and worked so closely with for almost two decades,” NPR reported.
If the Senate staff that served under Biden “had to go under oath, I think they would have to admit something very different,” Reade said.
“He would put his fingers underneath the back of my neck, underneath my hair, and then run his finger up and down,” Reade said. He would “massage my shoulders, and touch me. It was just weird,” she added, noting this happened before the incident in the hallway.
Spokespeople for Biden have repeatedly denied the allegations.
The White House did not respond to the Daily Caller at the time of publication about the allegations and whether Biden would be willing to testify under oath.
Reade in 1993. Courtesy of Tara Reade
Reade claims her mother called into “Larry King Live” in August of 1993 and asked host Larry King what her daughter could do other than go to the press with “problems” she encountered after working for a “prominent Senator.”
Audio shows that a woman did call in to the show at the time, and Reade has claimed that the woman on the line is her mother.
“I’m wondering what a staffer would do besides go to the press in Washington? My daughter has just left there, after working for a prominent senator, and could not get through with her problems at all, and the only thing she could have done was go to the press, and she chose not to do it out of respect for him,” Reade’s mother allegedly said.
King responded, “in other words, she had a story to tell but, out of respect for the person she worked for, she didn’t tell it?”
“That’s true,” Reade’s mother allegedly said.
Video👇🏻@ReadeAlexandra — is this your Mom’s voice? https://t.co/ospBhlKSvb pic.twitter.com/r5WsXJ2vQb
— Rich McHugh (@RichMcHugh) April 24, 2020
Reade’s friend said that she told her about the alleged assault at the time, and another friend and Reade’s brother have said that Reade informed them of the alleged assault over the years, The New York Times reported.
Reade told the Caller she filed a sexual harassment report through the Senate in 1993, and that the report was filed on paper. If the paper still exists, it would be sealed with Biden’s papers at the University of Delaware, Reade added.
She continued that when she brought her complaints to her superiors, she was “threatened” and ultimately dismissed from her duties.
One of the press secretary’s staff at the time told Reade, “we’ll f***ing destroy you, if you go forward,” Reade told the Caller.
The intimidation and trauma led Reade to not come forward for years, she said.
“I was 28-years-old, it was scary to hear at the time. It was at the beginning of my political career, and it kind of shut me up,” Reade continued.
House Republicans have announced that they are launching an investigation into Biden, alleging that the president was “involved” in his son Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings.
Republican Kentucky Rep. James Comer, a ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, did not provide comment on Reade’s request.
Biden supporters have used a 2020 probe into Reade allegedly providing a false statement under oath in an attempt to discredit her.
South Bay, California, defense attorneys investigated whether Reade had falsely described her education credentials under oath. A spokesperson for her undergraduate college provided a statement to CNN saying she never graduated, according to the Intercept.
The probe was concluded and no charges were filed, according to the Intercept, and Reade has sent letters to several publications demanding that their claims about her alleged false claims be clarified.
