Tara Reade, the former Senate aide to former Vice President Joe Biden who alleges that the presumptive 2020 Democrat president nominee sexually assaulted her in the 1990s, is facing a barrage of online harassment, according to a Fox News interview with Reade on Saturday.
“I find it astounding — the hypocrisy that Democrats are talking about women being able to tell their story safely,” Reade said. “I’m a Democrat, a lifelong Democrat, but yet here I am trying to talk about my history with Joe Biden and I’m just the target of online harassment.”
Fox News reported on the harassment, including fake social media accounts in Reade’s name:
Reade told Fox News that the home address of a family member was plastered online and that person received four “creepy” calls on Friday night, all within 30 minutes, from an unknown number.
In two voice messages obtained by Fox News, a caller appeared to have posed as a journalist seeking to speak with Reade.
“Hi Ms. Reade, this is Dave Johnson from the Observer, a small New York newspaper,” the voice says before laughing uncontrollably, later saying “Jeffrey Epstein didn’t kill himself” and “Trump 2020.”
In the second voice message, which was the third attempt at calling Reade’s family member, the caller says: “Hey Tara, this is Dave Johnson with the Observer and I would really love, I’d really appreciate a call back so we can discuss your new powerful allegation against Vice President Biden. I think you’re setting a tone and underscoring a double standard put forth by the Me Too movement, so I’d really appreciate it if you could just call me back, give me a couple of quick questions.”
Fox News also obtained an email sent to Reade from someone using the name Linda Dubois who called Reade a “f—king whore” and a “disgrace to womanhood” for speaking out against Biden.
“You are a rip-roaring b—h and the great majority of Americans don’t believe you anyhow… I hope you drop dead,” the email said.
Fox News reported that Jon Cooper, a former chair of the Democratic Coalition, questioned if Reade was “unbalanced” or “was driven by malicious motives” on Twitter.
“This is an example [of] what I am dealing with in addition to the threats and harassment online,” Reade tweeted about Cooper.
“This is something that really has to stop and I’m just wondering where this is coming from,” Reade told Fox News. “Are these just fanatic supporters? And if so, what does that say about our Democratic voters? Why are they targeting me when the party line is supposed to be allowing people to be safe? Why are they targeting my family and myself and making my family frightened?”
“It creates barriers for survivors to want to come forward and talk about difficult things that have happened,” Reade said. “And in my case, talking about how Joe Biden sexually harassed and sexually assaulted me is very excruciating and enough by itself, but then to be targeted and harassed and have my whole family targeted and harassed online by people that call themselves his supporters is not only just upsetting, it’s frightening.”
On Friday, Biden said in an interview with MSNBC that the assault “never happened,” and while women should be heard if they claim they’ve been sexually assaulted they should also be “vetted.”
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