Joe Biden is denying a former staffer’s allegation that the then-senator sexually assaulted her back in 1993. Biden is now calling on the National Archives to release any complaint related to the allegation. He appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe today to address the accusation saying:
“It is not true, I am saying unequivocally it never never happened and it didn’t. It never happened.” He went on to say he knows of no complaints whatsoever against him during his political career, “This is an open book. There’s nothing for me to hide, nothing at all.”
Joe Biden, asked on @Morning_Joe if he sexually assaulted Tara Reade:
“No, it is not true. I’m saying unequivocally it never, never happened. And it didn’t. It never happened.” pic.twitter.com/nXIAdGloG5
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) May 1, 2020
Mika Brzezinski conducted most of the interview with Biden and pressed especially hard on why this allegation is different than the one against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Here’s part of that exchange:
MB: “As it pertained to Dr. (Christine Blasey)Ford, high-level Democrats said she should be believed, that they believed it happened. You said, if someone like Dr. Ford were to come out, the essence of what she is saying has to be believed, has to be real. Why? Why? Why is it real for Dr. Ford, but not for Tara Reade?”
JB:“I’m not suggesting she had no right to come forward. Any woman, they should come forward, they should be heard. And then it should be investigated. And if there’s anything that is consistent with what’s being said, and she makes the case or the case is made, then it should be believed. But only the truth matters.”
MB:“Are women to be believed unless it pertains to you?”
JB:“Look, women are to be believed, given the benefit of the doubt. If they come forward and say something that they said happened to them, they should start off with the presumption that they’re telling the truth. Then you have to look at the circumstances and the facts. And the facts, in this case, do not exist. They never happened.”
The interview with @JoeBiden was difficult, having known and greatly respected him for decades. (I still do.) The notion that all women are to be believed, which dominated the Kavanaugh hearings, was revisited. Should it be? Were Democrats wrong THEN or NOW?
— Mika Brzezinski (@morningmika) May 1, 2020
Brzezinski did point out that this issue is a dicey one for Donald Trump because he faces several misconduct allegations. That isn’t stopping some of those close to him from trying to use Tara Reade’s account against Biden. Mediaite points out that Brzezinski highlighted this today as well (watch above):
She then spent nearly six solid minutes individually naming the dozens of women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct, and replaying the infamous Access Hollywood tape in which Trump brags about grabbing women by their sexual organs without consent.
Brzezinski followed the tape by noting “The pattern and the admission.”
