On Wednesday morning, a former staff assistant for Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden made shocking allegations that could completely remake the 2020 presidential campaign.
While being interviewed for a podcast, Tara Reade accused Biden of sexual assault in 1993 when she was asked to take him an athletic bag at the gym.
Reade originally turned to the nonprofit Times Up Legal Defense Fund in January to tell her story, but was turned away. According to podcaster Katie Halper, the organizers of Time’s Up were concerned that their nonprofit status could be threatened by Biden.
So Reade went to the podcast to tell her story — and what she shared was graphic.
“He just said, ‘Hey come here Tara’ and I handed him the bag,” Reade said. “And then, we were alone, and it was the strangest thing,” Reade claimed. “There was no, like, exchange really, he just had me up against the wall.”
“I was wearing a … business skirt, but I wasn’t wearing stockings because it was kind of a hot day that day, and I was wearing heels. I remember my legs had been hurting from the marble from walking around the Capitol. I remember that kind of stuff — like I was wearing a blouse.”
“He just had me up against the wall, and the wall was cold,” Reade continued. “It happened all at once. The gym bag, I don’t know where it went… I’d handed it to him, and then it was gone.”
“His hands were on me, and underneath my clothes. He went down my skirt, but then up inside,” she claimed. “He penetrated me with his fingers.”
“He was kissing me at the same time and he said several things … and I remember a couple of things. I remember him saying, ‘Do you want to go somewhere else?'” she said.
Reade claims she pulled away and Biden said, “Come on, man, I heard you liked me!” — a phrase that stuck with her because she said it made her feel guilty.
Reade said the incident “shattered her” because she’d looked up to Biden as a father figure. According to her account, Biden angrily stormed off after the encounter.
She retreated to a stairwell “trying to grasp what had just happened and what I should do or what I should say.”
Reade first came forward in April 2019 with her allegations but retreated from public view after she was accused of being a Russian agent.
At the time, Biden’s team made the following statement —
https://twitter.com/BillR/status/1112339598699626501
You can listen to the interview for yourself here —
The Associated Press contributed to this article