Author Tara Reade condemned former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s endorsement of Joe Biden for president, even as the former Vice President has remained silent about her accusation of sexual assault in 1993.
“I voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. I voted for her in the primary. I’m a lifelong Democrat. But yet, what I see now is someone enabling a sexual predator and it was my former boss, Joe Biden, who raped me,” Reade said in a statement to Fox News. “Hillary Clinton has a history of enabling powerful men to cover up their sexual predatory behaviors and their inappropriate sexual misconduct. We don’t need that for this country. We don’t need that for our new generation coming up that wants institutional rape culture to change.”
“I will not be smeared, dismissed, or ignored. I stand in truth and I will keep speaking out,” she added.
Reade alleges that Biden assaulted her while the two were in the basement of a Capitol Hill building in 1993.
“He was whispering to me and trying to kiss me at the same time, and he was saying, ‘Do you want to go somewhere else?’” Reade recalled in a recent interview with the Associated Press. “I remember wanting to say stop, but I don’t know if I said it out loud or if I just thought it. I was kind of frozen up.”
Reade said she moved away from Biden, who responded surprisingly: “come on, man, I heard you liked me.”
The Biden campaign has denied the allegation, though the former vice president himself has yet to address the matter.
Earlier Tuesday, Clinton endorsed Biden’s White House run in a virtual town hall event together.
“I am thrilled to be part of your campaign to not only endorse you but to help highlight a lot of the issues that are at stake in this presidential election,” Clinton said. “I want to add my voice to the many who have endorsed you to be our president. Just think of the difference it would make right now if we had a president who not only listened to the science, put facts over fiction, but brought us together.”
Clinton also did not address Reade’s allegations during the live stream. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, has faced multiple allegations of sexual assault and infamously engaged in an affair with then-White House intern, Monica Lewinsky.
In a Monday interview with Business Insider, Lynda LaCasse, a former neighbor to Reade, said the two discussed her alleged allegation against Biden between 1995 and 1996.
“I remember her saying, here was this person that she was working for and she idolized him,” LaCasse told the news outlet. “And he kind of put her up against a wall. And he put his hand up her skirt and he put his fingers inside her. She felt like she was assaulted, and she really didn’t feel there was anything she could do.”
“She was crying,” LaCasse continued. “She was upset. And the more she talked about it, the more she started crying. I remember saying that she needed to file a police report.”
“I don’t remember all the details,” she added. “I remember the skirt. I remember the fingers. I remember she was devastated.”
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