Rep. Ayanna Pressley issued a sharp critique of her “Republican colleagues,” who she claims are highlighting sexual assault allegations against former Vice President Joe Biden in a bid to derail his candidacy.
Pressley wrote in a Monday post on Medium that Republicans will do anything in their power to keep the presumptive Democratic nominee out of the White House, including elevating Tara Reade’s sexual assault allegations against Biden.
“My Republican colleagues who voted against the Violence Against Women Act, slammed doors in the faces of survivors during the Kavanaugh hearings, and are spending millions to weaponize these allegations against Democratic women in purple states, do not care at all about survivor justice,” the Massachusetts Democrat wrote.
“What they care about is using anything they can to undermine the Democratic nominee. It is a shameless and brutal exercise that does nothing but irrevocably harm the very people such opportunists claim to be standing up for,” she continued.
Pressley also revealed that she is a sexual assault survivor and said she was hopeful Biden would address the accusations “for those who do, actually, seek to reframe our conversations and work in pursuit of justice.”
In March, Reade’s allegations of sexual assault by Biden surfaced, leading to bipartisan calls for the Democrat to address the accusations. Reade, a former staffer of Biden in the early 1990s, said the then-senator pushed her against a wall and penetrated her with his fingers against her will. On April 24, Reade confirmed that it was her mother who called into an episode of Larry King Live in 1993 to complain about a lack of legal options for women sexually assaulted by members of Congress.
In September 2019, Pressley and other members of “the Squad” introduced an impeachment resolution against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, almost a year after he was confirmed amid allegations of sexual impropriety from Christine Blasey Ford and others.
“I believe Christine Blasey Ford,” Pressley told the Hill. “I believe Deborah Ramirez. It is our responsibility to collectively affirm the dignity and humanity of survivors. Sexual predators do not deserve a seat on the nation’s highest court.”
