Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the woman who accused former Vice President Joe Biden of sexual assault is a “survivor.”
During an interview with NPR on Thursday, the New York Democrat said she believes Reade is a survivor of sexual assault, but did not say whether she thinks Biden is guilty.
“Instead of focusing on her account, instead of focusing on her story as a survivor, people are fast-forwarding to the political implications. ‘Do you want Trump to win? Will you be voting for Joe Biden?’ and that denies justice in this situation,” she said.
Ocasio-Cortez went on to say Reade does not have a political aim with her accusations, though Reade did say in an interview with former NBC and Fox News journalist Megyn Kelly that she hopes he drops out of the race.
“I think a lot of what we can look for is, look at the aims that the survivor is asking for. And while a lot of folks are trying to jump to the political implications, she has never explicitly said, ‘Don’t support Joe Biden,’ she hasn’t explicitly said anything in terms of a political remedy that she wants. If anything, it sounds like she simply wants to be heard,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
Ocasio-Cortez has stopped short of endorsing Biden for president, noting that socialists and liberal Democrats have not come together to form a cohesive message, but promised to vote for him in the upcoming general election.
“To me, an endorsement means we have come to a place where we’ve developed a vision together, not just in November, but how we’re going to govern after. I don’t say that to score a point or to say that I must be courted. But I say that because I want to reflect the views of how young people, how Latinos are feeling right now about this moment. And I want us to be clear-eyed about the coalition-building that needs to happen between now and November in order to win,” she said.
