Tara Reade’s allegations against Joe Biden, explained

Reade came forward along with seven other women in the spring of 2019 to detail Biden’s inappropriate touching. At the time, Reade said that Biden touched her several times when she worked in his office that included putting his hand on her shoulder and running his fingers up her neck. She said then that her responsibilities at work were reduced when she refused to serve drinks at an event, an assignment given by Biden himself because he allegedly liked her legs.

It wasn’t until March 2020 that Reade’s account expanded to allege sexual assault. However, in late April, Reade’s account of the incident was being corroborated in a way that made the story immeasurably difficult for many left-leaning, Biden-friendly outlets and publications to ignore.

On April 24th, The Intercept’s Ryan Grim reported that Reade’s mother, Jeanette Altimus, called into CNN’s Larry King Live on August 11, 1993 to allude to the problem her daughter had at Biden’s office. The article produced a transcript of the call, and later that day, the Media Research Center released a clip of the exchange.

While the clip doesn’t include names and details of the problem, Reade did confirm that it was her mother’s voice. Reade went on to say that she told her mother, brother, and a close friend who hasn’t yet been named about the incident.

Yet, the issue here is that none of the people Reade mentioned her story to went on the record to corroborate her account. For one, Reade’s mother, Jeanette Altimus, passed away in 2016. Reade’s brother and close friend have yet to go on the record. It wasn’t until a few days later that Reade’s story got the corroboration it needed to become too big to ignore.

On April 27th, freelance journalist Rich McHugh reported through Business Insider that Reade’s former neighbor, Lynda LaCasse, went on the record to say that Reade told her in detail about the alleged assault in 1995 or 1996. LaCasse, who lived next door to Reade, told McHugh, “This happened, and I know it did because I remember talking about it.”

Since then, Reade told the Daily Caller that she believes a copy of her complaint filed in the Senate personnel report is housed in the University of Delaware library, and called for its release. The university announced that Biden’s records would not be made available until two years after Biden “retires from public life.”

But here’s where things get sketchy. According to a report by Nicole Einbinder in Business Insider, Biden’s camp is not only refusing to release the records, but they sent in operatives to look through the records, potentially compromising the whole process of transparency.

To make matters worse, Biden’s defenders have been adamant about taking his side over Tara Reade, even when they’ve been less inclined to stand with the accused because it’s politically inconvenient. New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has stood by Biden, even though she condemned Brett Kavanaugh for the allegations against him despite having the FBI not being able to turn up anything and pressuring Al Franken, with the help of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, to resign from the Senate for sexual assault allegations before a Senate Ethics probe.

Meanwhile, former Georgia State Rep. Stacey Abrams has had Biden’s back and refuses to acknowledge there’s a double standard being applied between Biden and Kavanaugh.

After more than a month, Biden finally addressed Reade’s accusation on Morning Joe on May 1st.

While Reade has been dismissed as a Bernie Sanders supporter who held sympathies for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Reade has denied that her accusation has any political motivations.

The real test is this: will Democrats, who branded themselves as champions of women, allow themselves to be represented by a candidate for president who, at the very least, has had a very questionable, if not, dubious history with women? Looks like we already know the answer to that.