Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell predicted that Joe Biden will have to release his sealed Senate records to provide insight into the sexual assault allegation levied against him.
Tara Reade, 56, a former Biden Senate staffer, has alleged that the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee inappropriately touched her and penetrated her with his fingers while forcibly kissing her in 1993. Biden’s campaign has denied all of the allegations, but the former vice president himself has not publicly addressed them.
Reade claimed that she filed a complaint with a Senate personnel office about harassment she experienced in Biden’s office at the time, but no record of the report has been found. She has since indicated that the complaint, which did not include the assault allegation, could be stored in Biden’s personal archive at the University of Delaware, which is sealed from the public.
McConnell, in a Thursday morning interview, said he believes Biden will eventually allow for the documents to be released.
“When you run for president of the United States, your life is an open book,” the Kentucky Republican said. “I can’t imagine that Vice President Biden is not going to have to participate and release all of the information related to the allegations. It’s a very challenging thing to run for president, and I think everyone who has done that has realized that their entire life is opened up to scrutiny. I think that’s happening to Vice President Biden, and they shouldn’t be surprised.”
Biden’s archive was expected to be made public sometime last year, but the university extended the seal from the public until two years after Biden “retires from public life” or two years after Dec. 31, 2019, whichever is later.
In the time since Reade came forward, her brother, an unnamed friend, a former neighbor, and a former colleague have said they were told either about the assault or harassment at the time.
[Opinion: Comparing Trump and Biden’s sexual assault allegations]
