The woman who accused former Vice President Joe Biden of sexual assault reportedly canceled a planned interview with Fox News Sunday.
Tara Reade, a former Biden staffer who accused the presidential candidate of sexually assaulting her in 1993, reportedly canceled a tentative interview with Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, which was scheduled to be recorded on Friday and aired on Sunday.
“We never confirmed the interview or the New York Times story, and we don’t provide details on the booking process,” a Fox News representative told Edward-Isaac Dovere, a staff writer at the Atlantic.
“Fox News had been very excited about booking Reade, given that it would have been her first network television interview. Wallace was getting ready for the conversation. There’s consternation internally that it isn’t happening,” Dovere reported in a series of tweets.
news that Wallace was set to do the interview had been reported by @benyt.
Fox News spokesperson tells me:
“We never confirmed the interview or the New York Times story and we don’t provide details on the booking process.”— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) May 2, 2020
Fox News had been very excited about booking Reade, given that it would have been her first network television interview. Wallace was getting ready for the conversation. There’s consternation internally that it isn’t happening.
— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) May 2, 2020
Reade told a New York Times reporter that she canceled the interview because of death threats both she and her daughter are facing because of their willingness to speak out.
Tara Reade tells me she canceled the interview with Fox News because death threats received by her and her child made her nervous about being in the public eye. https://t.co/HtuxI9dJXC
— Lisa Lerer (@llerer) May 2, 2020
Reade, 56, has voiced concerns about the potential of Republicans using her story to politicize the issue of sexual assault. “What I would say about Republicans using this story is please don’t politicize it,” Reade told the Washington Examiner in an interview Monday. “There are many people who identify with Republican politics that have that are also survivors and have also been silenced.”
“If they want to talk about sexual assault, sexual harassment in a general way, then this would be the time to have a general conversation. That has nothing to do with being Democrat or Republican, but just to empower women to be safer in their workplaces and safer in general,” Reade also said.
Reade, who was a lifelong Democrat, says she has never been a supporter of President Trump, but that she is no longer a Democrat.
According to Reade, Biden forced himself upon her in the spring of 1993, kissing her and penetrating her with his fingers without her consent. Biden, along with his three office staffers, has denied the claim.
