President Donald Trump said Thursday that former Vice President Joe Biden should answer accusations of sexual assault from Tara Reade, a former staffer from when he was the Senator of Deleware.
“I don’t know. I can’t speak for Biden. I can only say that I think he should respond,” Trump said when asked about the allegations after a White House event.
The president acknowledged that Reade’s accusation could be false, noting that both he and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh were falsely charged with sexual assault, but he said that Biden should answer questions about it.
Reade served as a staffer in Biden’s Senate office between 1992 and 1993 and claimed that then-Senator Joe Biden pushed her against a wall and forcibly kissed her while penetrating her with his fingers in 1993.
Reade called Biden to open up his Senate papers to scrutiny, which were sealed by the University of Delaware after he announced his run for president.
Biden remains silent about the accusations, but the campaign has sent female surrogates into the media to defend him with a series of talking points.
Trump said that Biden himself had to answer the questions about the accusations.
“I think he should respond,” Trump said. “It could be false accusations, I know all about false accusations. I’ve been falsely charged numerous times.”
Biden will reportedly be asked about Reade’s allegations in an interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Friday, according to New York Times columnist Ben Smith.
Biden will be on Morning Joe tomorrow, expected to be asked about Tara Reade, I'm told.
— Ben Smith (@benyt) April 30, 2020
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