Biden sex assault accuser Tara Reade calls for him to drop out of 2020 presidential race

The woman who says presumed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993 called on him to withdraw from the 2020 election in a new interview.

The woman, Tara Reade, also has retained a law firm that represents women who claim that they were victims of convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein, the fallen movie mogul whose serial abuse of women sparked the MeToo movement, that firm announced.

Reade said in an interview with journalist Megyn Kelly that she wanted to tell Biden, who strongly denies her claim, “You and I were there, Joe Biden. Please step forward and be held accountable.’ “

“You should not be running on character for the president of the United States,” Reade said in a brief portion of the interview posted Thursday on Twitter by Kelly, a former host of NBC’s “TODAY Show.”

Asked by Kelly if she wants Biden to quit the race for the White House, Reade said, “I wish he would, but he won’t.”

“But I wish he would,” she said. “That’s how I feel emotionally.”

 Asked if she wants an apology from Biden, Reade answered, “I think it’s a little late.”

The New York firm Wigdor LLP said in a statement Thursday that it had been retained by Reade.

“We at Wigdor LLP firmly believe that every survivor of sexual assault has the right to competent legal counsel, and we will represent Ms. Reade zealously, just as we would any other victim of sexual violence,” said the statement issued by Douglas Wigdor, the firm’s name partner. 

Biden, who served as vice president from 2009 through 2017, has rejected Reade’s claim that he assaulted then-Biden Senate staffer against her will in the 1993 when she allegedly was giving him a gym bag in a hallway on Capitol Hill.

“I’m saying unequivocally that it never, never happened,” Biden said in an interview last Friday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

Biden in that interview had “the full and growing record of inconsistencies” in Reade’s accusations and said: “They aren’t true. This never happened.”

Wigdor, in his statement, said, “Ms. Reade will be heard shortly in an interview conducted by Megyn Kelly and produced by Richard McHugh, and she will describe to the American public what happened to her.”

“Her harrowing account is credible and supported by numerous ‘outcry’ witnesses from decades ago.”

McHugh is a former NBC News producer who worked with journalist and author Ronan Farrow on an expose of Weinstein’s sexual misconduct, which Farrow ultimately published in The New Yorker after NBC declined to air his work.

Reade rattled Biden’s presidential campaign in March with an interview on a podcast in which she said that Biden pinned her against a wall and pentrated her with his finger in a hallway when he was a senator from Delaware. 

Reade’s brother and a former neighbor have said that she Reade discussed details of the alleged assault with them in the 1990s.

But a number of people who worked in Biden’s Senate office at the same time has Reade has said that her claims do not jibe with their own experience working for him.

Wigdor’s statement also said, “It is inevitable that partisan politics will lead people to attack our firm and Mr. Wigdor specifically, particularly given his support of Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.”

“However, any objective view of Mr. Wigdor’s career and the history of the Firm (which is comprised of partners, lawyers and staff from all political parties) belie such a false narrative and make clear that our representation is simply a continuation of our objective support of all legitimate victims,” the email said.

Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/07/biden-accuser-tara-reade-hires-lawyers-who-handle-harvey-weinstein-victims.html