Former NBC News and Fox News star Megyn Kelly just scored a major scoop — the first exclusive television interview with the woman who accused former Vice President Joe Biden of sexual assault, Tara Reade.
Executives at major news networks had been working feverishly to land Reade’s first major network interview.
So how did Kelly, who is an out-of-work video blogger, win the scoop?
Reade reached out to her — not the other way around.
“I had no plans on going and doing an interview, but we got to talking and she said she’d been trying to reach me, trying to find ways to get in touch with me, and asked me if I would interview her,” Kelly told The Daily Beast on Thursday. “So I said yes.”
Kelly says her and her producer flew out to California to sit down with Reade for an hour-long interview. She hopes to release a 30-minute version of the interview on her Instagram later Friday.
Kelly has already released a short clip, which included Reade asking Biden to drop out of the 2020 presidential race.
“He went on T.V. last Friday and said: First of all, it never happened. Period. End of report, this did not happen,” Kelly said in a preview of the interview. “He did say that, in his view, accusers should start off with the presumption that they’re telling the truth. Do you think he’s afforded you that presumption?”
“No,” Reade responds. “Actually, it’s been stunning how … some of his surrogates [on social media] have been saying really horrible things about me, and to me, on social media.”
“There is a measure of hypocrisy with the [Biden] campaign saying it’s safe. It has not been safe,” she said. Reade said people with grudges against her have come out of the woodwork to attack her character and said she’s received death threats.
“If he’s watching this, what do you want to say to him?” Kelly asked.
“I want to say: You and I were there, Joe Biden. Please, step forward and be held accountable,” Reade said. “You should not be running on character for the President of the United States.”
“You want him to withdraw?”
“I wish he would,” Reade replied. “But he won’t… but I wish he would.”
MK EXCLUSIVE: #TaraReade responds to #JoeBiden; calls for him to drop out pic.twitter.com/jxHAUYaWVU
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) May 7, 2020
After, Kelly discussed the interview with The Daily Beast, saying she didn’t pull any punches — and she gave credit to Reade for standing strong.
“It was emotional, it was powerful, and I asked her all the tough questions,” Kelly said. “But to her credit, she said that’s what she wanted.”
“She knows me and my work and she said ‘I knew you’d ask me tough questions. But I knew you were trauma-informed’, ”
Kelly has interviewed many high profile #MeToo women after accusing her own former boss, Fox News’ Roger Ailes, of sexual harassment in 2016.
The Horn editorial team