AOC: Tara Reade’s Sexual Assault Allegation Against Biden Not ‘Clear Cut’

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said in an interview on Thursday that former Senate aide Tara Reade’s allegation against Joe Biden is not “clear cut” and that she will vote for the presumptive Democrat nominee in November.

She made the remarks in an interview with taxpayer-funded National Public Radio (NPR), which was careful to present the socialist Democrat’s perspective in a way that supports a victim while not supporting a victim.

“[Ocasio-Cortez said] that it remains of great importance to listen to survivors and allow for proper due process in such cases,” NPR reported on its Morning Edition program.

Ocasio-Cortez also called the Biden scandal “messy.”

“It certainly seems as though something has happened. I’m not sure,” she said, adding, “Frankly, this is a messy moment, and I think we need to acknowledge that — that it is not clear cut,” NPR reported.

Reade has said that Biden assaulted her in 1993, pushing her against a wall in a Senate office building and penetrating her vagina with his fingers.

“Biden flatly denies Reade’s account,” NPR reported.

NPR reported that Reade’s friend corroborated her claim:

A friend of Reade’s, who spoke to NPR, said Reade told her of the same alleged assault at the time. Reade’s brother recalled his sister telling him some of the account. Reade’s former neighbor told NPR she detailed the same accusation to her 2-3 years after it allegedly occurred. Reade says she complained of harassment, but not assault, to three then-Biden aides. All three told NPR that those conversations never happened.

Ocasio-Cortez says that the public response has wrongly focused on the political implications of the accusation.

“Instead of focusing on her account, instead of focusing on her story as a survivor, people are fast forwarding to the political implications,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “‘Do you want Trump to win? Will you be voting for Joe Biden?’ And that denies justice in this situation.”

Ocasio-Cortez told NPR she will vote for Biden but has not endorsed him because an endorsement “has to do with an understanding of what we are fighting for together.”

“I think an endorsement means we have come to a place where we have developed a vision together not just for winning [in November] but for getting our country to a better place,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

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