The New York Times issued a strong rebuke of the Biden campaign for allegedly misrepresenting the publication's deep dive into sexual assault allegations levied against the presidential contender.
Tara Reade, 56, who worked in Biden's Senate office in 1993, alleged that Joe Biden inappropriately touched her and once penetrated her with his fingers while forcibly kissing her. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee's campaign has denied the allegations, but Biden himself has not addressed them.
The Biden campaign is instructing supporters to use talking points referencing the New York Times's recent investigation into Reade's claims as a way to address her accusations publicly, according to BuzzFeed News . However, the newspaper accused the Biden team of misconstruing the findings of its investigation by claiming it found that the assault "did not happen."
"BuzzFeed reported on the existence of talking points being circulated by the Biden campaign that inaccurately suggest a New York Times investigation found that Tara Reade’s allegation ‘did not happen,’" Danielle Rhoades Ha, the paper's vice president of communications, told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday. "Our investigation made no conclusion either way. As BuzzFeed correctly reported, our story found three former Senate aides whom Reade said she complained to contemporaneously, all of whom either did not remember the incident or said that it did not happen."
"The story also included former interns who remembered Reade suddenly changing roles and no longer overseeing them, which took place during the same time period that Reade said she was abruptly reassigned," Rhoades Ha added. "The Times also spoke to a friend who said Reade told her the details of the allegation at the time; another friend and Reade’s brother say she told them of a traumatic sexual incident involving Biden."
The Biden campaign's top talking point explained that the outlet did "weeks of extensive investigative research," including "talking to nearly two dozen former Biden staff from the 1990s," and claimed it concluded that "no other allegation about sexual assault surfaced in the course of reporting, nor did any former Biden staff members corroborate any details of Ms. Reade’s allegation. The Times found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Biden."
The final sentence the Biden campaign quoted from the New York Times originally read : "The Times found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Biden, beyond the hugs, kisses and touching that women previously said made them uncomfortable." New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet indicated that the second half of the sentence was deleted as a result of a complaint from the Biden campaign.
The other talking points reference the fact that all four of the people Reade claimed were notified of a complaint she filed told the New York Times on the record that they don't remember the allegation, that the former vice president has been "a fierce advocate for women," that there's "never been a complaint, allegation, hint or rumor of any impropriety or inappropriate conduct" of this nature, and that the New York Times concluded that "this incident did not happen."
In the time since Reade came forward, her brother, an unnamed friend, a former neighbor, and a former colleague have said they were told about either the assault or harassment at the time.
