Biden Offers Plan for Dealing with COVID-19 Pandemic, Remains Mute on Assault Accusation
Likely Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is offering his own plan for dealing with the Coronavirus while criticizing the Trump administration's actions.
Biden told Politico he wants far more spending to deal with COVID-19. He says one of the ways out of this economic crisis is through a $1 trillion infrastructure program to create new American jobs, along with environmental programs and massive aid for state and local governments.
However, Biden has been quiet about claims from a former staffer named Tara Reade who has publicly accused him of sexual assault in 1993. Describing an incident that she says happened while she was serving on Biden's Senate staff, Reade said Biden pushed her against a wall in the basement of a Capitol Hill office building, groped her, and then reached under her skirt and touched her genitals.
She said after telling her supervisors in Biden's office that she had been sexually harassed by the then-senator, her concerns weren't taken seriously and she was eventually told to find another job.
Two of those staffers have said in interviews that they didn't recall Reade or any such incident. The third issued an on-the-record statement denying Reade's claim.
Now, Reade's former neighbor is supporting that account. Lynda LaCasse says Reade detailed the alleged incident to her in the mid-90s.
"She felt like she was assaulted, and she really didn't feel there was anything she could do," LaCasse told Business Insider.
Late last week, the Intercept unearthed a 1993 video clip that shows a woman Reade says was her mother calling into CNN's "Larry King Live." In the clip, an unnamed woman from San Luis Obispo, Calif., tells King that her daughter just left Washington, "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."
Last spring, eight women, including Reade, came forward with allegations that Biden made them feel uncomfortable with inappropriate displays of affection. Biden acknowledged the complaints and promised to be "more mindful about respecting personal space in the future."
The Associated Press spoke with Reade about those complaints in April 2019. During that interview, Reade alleged that Biden rubbed her shoulders and neck and played with her hair and that she was asked by another aide in Biden's Senate office to dress more conservatively and told: "don't be so sexy."
Major media outlets have not asked Biden about the alleged assault. When Fox News asked the Biden campaign about the charge, it pointed to a previous statement saying while sexual assault claims should be "diligently reviewed by an independent press," what Reade alleged, "absolutely did not happen."
