On Friday morning, Joe Biden unequivocally denied an allegation by a former Senate staffer that he had sexually assaulted her.
“No. It is not true,” Biden told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” of the accusation made by a woman named Tara Reade that Biden had assaulted her in the mid 1990s. “I am saying unequivocally. It never, never happened, and it didn’t.”
That denial – and a 21-paragraph statement from Biden released by his campaign just before his appearance on MSNBC – are the first time that Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, has personally addressed the Reade allegation. And Biden’s response comes after increasing calls from Republicans, the media and even some Democrats for him to directly confront the allegations made by Reade.
Biden’s total and complete denial is consistent with a statement made by deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield which, along with a handful of former aides to Biden who also denied the incident occurred, was the only on-the-record comment from Biden world about the alleged incident until Friday morning. Biden said he had never asked anyone to sign a non-disclosure agreement and that “no one was aware of any complaint that was made” by Reade at the time of the alleged incident. He called on the secretary of the Senate to have the National Archives release any and all relevant personnel documents related to Reade.
In truth, Biden’s complete denial was the only possible response to the accusation – assuming Biden wanted to remain the unquestioned Democratic nominee against President Donald Trump.
Even before the Reade allegations came to light, there were grumbles among some Democrats – particularly supporters of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders – that the former vice president simply wasn’t the right choice for the party. Those grumbles had grown louder – particularly on Twitter – as the Reade allegations gained more steam and Biden remained silent. Even the slightest opening left by Biden – had he said something like “I don’t recall this ever happening but it was a long time ago” – would have almost certainly led to a push by some segments of the Democratic Party to rethink whether he should be their nominee.
But, Biden didn’t equivocate. He didn’t leave any wiggle room. He said this accusation by Reade is totally false. That it never happened. And he expressed bewilderment at why Reade would even be saying the things she is saying. “I don’t know why, after 27 years, all of a sudden this gets raised,” he said Friday morning. “I don’t understand it.”
So, that part of the story is now over. Biden should have spoken out – given the seriousness of the charges and his long-standing support for women to come forward and be heard if they believe they have been sexually assaulted – and he did. The relevant question now is will it be enough to put the story to bed?
Because, despite Biden’s denial, these realities remain:
* A former neighbor of Reade’s has told CNN that Reade told her in the mid-1990s about the alleged assault.
* A 1993 video has come to light that appears to show Reade’ mother calling into “Lary King Live” looking for guidance about how to handle “problems” her daughter was having with a US senator.
* Reade has said she filed a complaint at the time with the personnel office on Capitol Hill. (She has said she doesn’t have a copy of the complaint.)
* CNN has spoken with a friend of Reade’s, who wished to remain anonymous, who said they were told about the alleged incident at the time. Reade’s brother, Collin Moulton, has told CNN that Reade told him in the early 1990s that she had been asked to bring Biden his gym bag, and that in a private setting, he had cornered her against the wall and put his hands under her clothes.
The truth is that we may never know who, uh, is telling the truth here. In fact, that seems to be the likeliest outcome – a replay of Supreme Court confirmation fight in which Christine Blasey Ford said that court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in high school. Kavanaugh vehemently denied the allegations and, eventually, was confirmed to the court by a narrow Senate majority. It’s also worth noting here that Trump faced more than a dozen credible allegations of sexual assault during the 2016 campaign. He denied (and continues to deny) all of them – and was elected.
(Asked about his willingness to believe Blasey Ford but his denial of the Reade allegations, Biden said this: “No, what I said – because the facts are, look, I’m not suggesting she had no right to come forward. Any woman should come forward and be heard and then it should be investigated. If there is anything that is consistent with what is being said and she makes the case or the case is made, then it should be believed. Ultimately, the truth matters. Period.”)
At issue is whether any corroborating evidence – beyond what we already know – comes out on either side of the equation.
The most obvious so-called “smoking gun” would be if the complaint that Reade says she filed at the time of the incident can be found and what it says.
Biden was, again, totally unequivocal on that front Friday. “I am absolutely positive that nobody that I am aware of has been made aware of any complaint – a formal complaint – or complaint – made by Tara Reade against me at the time this allegedly happened 27 years ago until I announced for – I guess it was of April or May of this year,” he said.
His push for the release of any personnel papers held at the National Archives is an attempt by his campaign to show he is an open book, and that transparency works in his favor. The sticking point in all of this, however, will likely be Biden’s refusal to ask the University of Delaware, the keeper of his Senate papers, to open up their files to ensure that there is nothing about any incident like the one Reade described. (“As the curating process is not complete, the papers are not yet available to the public, and we are not able to identify what documents or files can be found within the collection,” the university said in a statement Thursday.)
Biden insisted that the papers at Delaware have no personnel information and that they shouldn’t be released in the heat of a presidential campaign. “The idea that they would all be made public while I was running for public office, they could really be taken out of context,” Biden said. “They are documents that existed that, for example when I met with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin or when I met with whomever. All of that could be fodder for a campaign, and I don’t know anyone who’s done anything like that.”
Republicans immediately pounced on Biden’s refusal to authorize the release of the papers at the university. “In the face of corroborated sexual assault allegations, Joe Biden is covering up his University of Delaware documents to save his political future,” said Republican National Committee Rapid Response Director Steve Guest.
In short: This story isn’t yet over. Biden did what he needed to do to preserve his political future. The question is now whether any indisputable evidence emerges that undermine his total and complete denial of Reade’s allegation. And whether or not the public cares either way.
