Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Tuesday that former Vice President Joe Biden’s response to sexual assault claims by former staffer Tara Reade are “sufficient,” even though Biden refuses to release his Senate papers.
Politico reported:
Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday that Joe Biden’s denial of sexual-assault allegations is “sufficient,” indicating that the Senate’s top Democrat plans to stick with the party’s expected standard-bearer in the November presidential election.
Schumer’s comments continue a pattern of top Democrats standing by the former vice president amid claims from a former Senate staffer, Tara Reade, who alleges that Biden sexually assaulted her in the early 1990s. Biden has repeatedly denied Reade’s claims, and his allies in Congress aren’t wavering in their support.
…
“Now I’ve heard Joe Biden’s explanation. I think it’s sufficient,” Schumer continued. “I think he will be a great candidate. I think he will be a great president. And I think he will help us take back the Senate.”
In 2018, Schumer said the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh should be delayed because of what he called a “rape attempt,” an uncorroborated claim by Professor Christine Blasey Ford from Kavanaugh’s high school days.
He called a “rush to judgment” an “insult to the women of America and an insult to the majesty of the Supreme Court of the United States.”
After Kavanaugh was accused by another woman, Julie Swetnick, of “gang rape,” Schumer called for a thorough investigation, claiming there were “multiple, corroborated [sic] allegations” against Kavanaugh.
Earlier this year, Schumer demanded that there be more “witnesses and documents” in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, claiming an acquittal would be “meaningless” without hearing additional evidence against him.
Reade claims that Biden sexually assaulted her in a Senate hallway in 1993, forcibly penetrating her with his fingers. Biden has denied the claim. There are multiple witnesses and documents attesting to the fact that she told others about the incident or sexual harassment in Biden’s Senate office.
Reade recently filed a report with Washington, DC, police. Her lawyer has asked Biden to open his Senate documents at the University of Delaware for review. But Biden has refused, saying bluntly that the papers are not to be released while he is serving in, or running for, public office because of the risk that people could use them for political purposes.
Biden asked the Senate to make public any documents it had about Reade’s complaint, but it refused, saying it had no discretion to do so.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, is available for pre-order. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.