Tara Reade, the woman who alleged President Biden sexually assaulted her years ago, is calling out New york Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s treatment of her compared with her support for two recent Cuomo accusers.
Reade, who has praised Ocasio-Cortez in the past, said the liberal representative’s hypocrisy was heartbreaking in a tweet on Sunday.
“@AOC I exist,I endured a sexual assault from Joe Biden while I worked as his staff then the smears and silence,” she wrote. “Your silence re me? The sheer hypocrisy breaks my [heart].”
I stand with both women coming forward about Cuomo’s behavior. I have supported @LindseyBoylan for a while. .@AOC I exist,I endured a sexual assault from Joe Biden while I worked as his staff then the smears and silence. Your silence re me? The sheer hypocrisy breaks my? https://t.co/rYU9kHF62S
— Tara Reade ? (@ReadeAlexandra) February 28, 2021
Ocasio-Cortez joined calls for an independent investigation into the allegations of former staffers Lindsey Boylan and Charlotte Bennett against Gov. Andrew Cuomo earlier on Sunday.
SECOND FORMER AIDE ACCUSES ANDREW CUOMO OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT
Reade’s allegations against then-candidate Biden first surfaced in March 2020. Despite fervent calls from liberal political figures to “believe women” in the wake of Christine Blasey Ford’s September 2018 allegations against now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh at the height of the “#MeToo” movement, many were quick to dismiss Reade’s account. Biden, who denied her claims, admitted that he wouldn’t vote for himself if he believed Reade but reiterated that the alleged sexual assault “never happened.”
“If they believe Tara Reade, they probably shouldn’t vote for me,” Biden said on May 14. “I wouldn’t vote for me if I believed Tara Reade.”
Biden was a vocal supporter of Blasey Ford in 2018, saying he believed the “essence” of her allegations against Kavanaugh were true.
“For a woman to come forward in the glaring lights of focus, nationally, you’ve got to start off with the presumption that at least the essence of what she is talking about is real, whether or not she forgets the facts, whether or not it’s been made worse or better over time,” he said.
Kavanaugh vigorously denied Blasey Ford’s accusations and was confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court that October following a supplemental FBI investigation.
Cuomo is also grappling with his previous support for Blasey Ford in light of the new allegations of sexual impropriety he is facing. While the New York governor called for Kavanaugh to take a polygraph test, he has dodged when asked whether he would take one himself to substantiate his denial of Boylan and Bennett’s accusations.
After Boylan accused Cuomo of sexually harassing her, including “stepp[ing] in front of [her] and kiss[ing] [her] on the lips,” in a Medium post on Wednesday, Bennett shared her claims that the governor made unwanted sexual overtures toward her. The mounting allegations have prompted bipartisan calls for an investigation, with Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik demanding the resignation of the “criminal sexual predator” governor and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio calling the charges “disturbing.”
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Cuomo said in 2019 that he would seek a fourth term as governor in New York’s 2022 election.
