Rep. Ilhan Omar says Tara Reade’s accusation of sexual assault against Joe Biden are true, but she’ll still support him as the Democratic presidential nominee.
The remarks, and subsequent clarification, started Sunday in an interview by the first-term Minnesota congresswoman with the Sunday Times, during which she was asked about the claims by Biden’s former Senate staffer.
“There’s a lot of unsavory stuff. It is troubling. I do believe Tara Reade. I believe it’s important for us to give space for women to come forward and share their stories,” Omar told the British newspaper. “It takes years and years for sexual assault survivors to come forward. Justice can be delayed, but it should never be denied.”
Omar, a member of a far-left group of first-term female House members nicknamed “the Squad,” backed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the primary and remained critical of the former vice president’s record throughout the race.
Shortly after the interview was released, Omar tweeted that her quotes from the May 6 interview weren’t “in context” and that she’ll “vote for him and help him defeat Trump.”
“We can’t fend off perceived attacks with attacks on others,” the Minnesota lawmaker wrote Monday morning. “This is the most important election cycle of our lifetimes and we aren’t going to have a chance if we don’t spend our energy in mobilizing and building enthusiasm against Trump. That’s the goal we should all be united on.”
The reporter who conducted the interview, Josh Glancy, told the United Kingdom’s the Independent that Omar’s assertions were false.
“But luckily, this was all on the record. Take a look and judge for yourself,” Glancy said, denying that her quotes were “out of context.”
In an interview with ABC’s Good Morning America on Tuesday morning, Omar maintained her support for Biden’s accuser but said that “there’s obviously parts” of Reade’s story “that have been corroborated and parts that haven’t.”
“I think it’s important when someone says they have been assaulted, and they see themselves as survivors that we, as we have been saying, believe survivors,” Omar said.
Biden has consistently denied the allegation made by Reade (that he groped her in a Senate hallway in 1993) with his campaign noting shifting details in her recollection of events.
“I don’t want to question her motive, I don’t want to question anything other than to say the truth matters. This is being vetted, it’s been vetted, and people, scores of my employees over my whole career,” Biden said on MSNBC earlier this month. “This is just totally, thoroughly, completely out of character. And, the idea that in a public place, in a hallway, I would assault a woman? I mean, it’s just — I — anyway, I promise you. It never happened.”
