Tara Reade is Hired by Biden’s office

When I applied for Joe Biden’s office, I had a phone interview and then they offered me an in-person interview. And so I went out to DC and I interviewed in person and when I was there, the scheduler interviewed me and Joe Biden happened to walk past. He saw me and she introduced me and we were in the inner, kind of alcove office. And he asked me my name. I told him and he said, “Oh, that’s a good Irish name.” And she offered to him, “Hey, she worked as an intern for Leon Panetta.” And he’s like, “Oh, he’s a good guy.” And then he looked back and smiled at me and said, “hire her.” And the scheduler looked at me and said, “I guess you’re hired.”

 – Tara Reade

Tara Reade Experiences first instance of sexual harassment in Biden’s office

Tara is asked to serve drinks at a fundraising event because “the Senator thinks that you’re pretty and that you have nice legs.” 

Tara Reade Complains informally of sexual harassment to her supervisor and experiences retaliation

I did a non-formal thing by just going to my supervisor. That’s when I was met with some of [my supervisor’s] attitude about the whole thing. Like why wasn’t I complimented, that people would be flattered to be liked by Joe Biden. And basically she was also admonishing me to keep my head down if I wanted to last. She said that a couple of times and she took me in the hallway a couple of times and kind of chewed me out a few times. Nothing was in writing.

But the time frame for me from this event [request to serve drinks and my taking it up with supervisors] to when I met him with the gym bag and the [assault] incident is compressed for me and I don’t know like how much time passed, but I do know a couple things happened between those two events. One that was significant was being told I had to dress differently and that I was too provocative and that was [said] by the assistant and by the scheduler. And they were finding fault with my work all the time, like every little thing. And it was almost to the point where three or four times a day there would be something, something, something wrong.

– Tara Reade

everything shattered in that moment: Joe Biden Sexually Assaults Tara Reade

The scheduler called me in and said, I want you to take this to Joe. He wants you to bring it, hurry. And I said, okay. And it was a gym bag. She called it an athletic bag. She said he was down towards the Capitol and “he’ll meet you.” And so I went down and he was at first talking to someone, I could see him at a distance and then they went away. And then, we were in like the side area. And he just said, Hey, come here, Tara. And then I handed him the thing and he greeted me, he remembered my name. And it was the strangest thing. There was no like exchange really. He just had me up against the wall. I was wearing a shirt and a skirt but I wasn’t wearing stockings. It was kind of a hot day. And I was wearing heels and I remember my legs had been hurting from the marble of the Capitol, walking on it. So I remember that kind of stuff. I remember it was kind of an unusually warm day. And I remember he just had me up against the wall and the wall was cold. It happened all at once. The gym bag, I don’t know where it went. I handed it to him. It was gone and then his hands were on me and underneath my clothes. And then he went down my skirt, but then up inside it and he penetrated me with his fingers. And he was kissing me at the same time and he was saying something to me. He said several things, I can’t remember everything he said. I remember a couple of things. I remember him saying first before, like as he was doing it, “do you want to go somewhere else?” And then him saying to me when I pulled away, when he got finished doing what he was doing and I pulled back and he said, “come on man, I heard you liked me.” And it’s that phrase [that] stayed with me because I kept thinking what I might’ve said [to make him think that]. And I can’t remember exactly, if he said “I thought,” or “I heard,” but it’s like he implied I had done this.

And for me it was like everything, everything shattered in that moment. I looked up to him, he was like my father’s age. He was this champion of women’s rights in my eyes. And I couldn’t believe that was happening. It seemed surreal. And I just felt sick because when he pulled back, he looked annoyed and he looked angry and he said something else to me that I, I don’t want to say. And I must’ve looked shocked [by what he said]. And he grabbed me by the shoulders and he said, you’re okay. You’re fine. You’re okay, you’re fine. And then, he walked away and he went on with his day.

And what I remember next is being in the Russell building, like where the big windows are and the stairs by myself and I was shaking everywhere because it was cold all of a sudden. I was trying to grasp what had just happened and what I should do or what I should say. But I knew it was bad because he was so angry. Like when he left, I could feel, you know how when you know someone’s angry, they don’t necessarily say anything. Like he smiles when he’s angry and you can just feel it.

– Tara Reade

Tara Reade tells her mother about the assault

So then I went home and I called my mom because I didn’t know who else to call and she was wanting me to go make a police report, like right away. My mom was very adamant that I do that. And I said, no. And we had an argument about it. I said, Mom, you can’t do that.

– Tara Reade

Tara Reade tells her friend about the assault

But Reade’s friend, the one who spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity, said Reade told her a much different story about Biden in 1993. That’s when Reade says she was asked to deliver a gym bag to Biden in a Senate office building; when she met him, she says, he kissed her and digitally penetrated her.

The friend said Reade called her a few nights after the assault allegedly occurred, and the friend described in vivid detail feeling “so physically sick” at the disclosure that she ran to the bathroom and threw up in the middle of their conversation.

via AP News. Read More here.

Tara Reade Files an official complaint

I did try to complain about the harassment internally, but I was going through protocol.

You go to your supervisor first, then to Dennis Toner, then to Ted Kaufman. I was following the protocol how you [were supposed to do] it, right? Yeah. But they didn’t do anything right. And then it got worse and then that [the assault] happens. So then I went outside and tried and there was like this office set up and I can’t remember if it was in the Rayburn office building…if it was in there…it seemed to me like it was in a congressional office building, not the Russell Senate. Longworth or Rayburn. And it was this little tiny office and you go up and there was literally a clipboard and I filled out a form and someone kind of was just out[side] the window, but it was weird and it wasn’t very confidential and it was just odd. So I filled out the form and I know it existed. They took it and then I don’t know what happened to it. I’ve tried to track that form down and I was told it was probably returned to Biden’s office. So it’s an archival material.

– Tara Reade

“They put me in a windowless office. And I was cut off from staff. I was not supervising the interns anymore. Literally, my job was to show up and just look for another job.”

Tara’s work dynamic suffers, she believes in retaliation for her attempt to report the sexual harassment she experienced in Biden’s office. 

But the time frame for me from this event [request to serve drinks and my taking it up with supervisors] to when I met him with the gym bag and the [assault] incident is compressed for me and I don’t know like how much time passed, but I do know a couple things happened between those two events. One that was significant was being told I had to dress differently and that I was too provocative and that was [said] by the assistant and by the scheduler. And they were finding fault with my work all the time, like every little thing. And it was almost to the point where three or four times a day there would be something, something, something wrong. And, my mother, I called my mom just one day in tears, you know, and she was like, you know,

this is retaliation.

They know that you want to file something. You’re already going through the motions.

– Tara Reade

Corroborations:

• Former interns recall that Tara stopped supervising them abruptly [NYT, 04/12]
• John Earnhardt took over Tara’s duties in the mailroom [Buzzfeed, 05/21]

Tara Volunteers at RFK’s 25th Anniversary Memorial

In June I was volunteering for the RFK Memorial, the 25th anniversary. I did the VIP tent and I was talking to a person in Kennedy’s office who was trying to help me backdoor, to get [Biden’s office] to stop what they were doing.

– Tara Reade

Tara’s employment in Biden’s senate office officially ends

I think my Senate record goes until August, but I remember leaving before then. I didn’t have a job. I couldn’t get a job. Once word got around unofficially about my trying to file a complaint, filling out a form and stuff, it’s like no one, no one on the Hill…Usually when I would send out resumes, I would get responses right away…

– Tara Reade

Tara Reade starts working for State Senator Jack O’Connell

After she left Washington, DC, Reade worked for California state Sen. Jack O’Connell. Lorraine Sanchez, a former legislative staffer in O’Connell’s office, mentored Reade and worked alongside her from 1994 through 1996. Sanchez told Insider that Reade complained at the time about being mistreated by her former employer.

Tara tells her neighbor Lynda LaCasse about the assault

A former neighbor of Joe Biden’s accuser Tara Reade has come forward to corroborate her sexual-assault account, saying Reade discussed the allegations in detail in the mid-1990s

Read More: https://www.businessinsider.com/former-neighbor-corroborates-joe-bidens-accuser-2020-4

Tara Divorces her ex-husband

After years of a frightening marriage with a violent domestic abuser, Tara Reade is finally able to divorce her ex-husband. A court document from 1996 corroborates that Tara told her ex-husband she was sexually harassed while working for Joe Biden. In it, her ex-husband wrote, 

I met Petitioner in the spring of 1993 while working in DC. At the early stages of our dating, Petitioner felt comfortable confiding in me as as we both worked for Members of Congress, and we share many other common interests.

on several occasions petitioner related a problem that she was having at work regarding sexual harassment, in U.S. Senator Joe Biden’s office.

Petitioner told me that she eventually struck a deal with the chief of staff of the Senator’s office and left her position. I was sympathetic to her needs when she asked me for help, and assisted her financially, and allowed her to stay at my apartment with my roommate while she looked for work.

it was obvious that this event had a very traumatic effect on petitioner, and that she is still sensitive and effected by it today.

Tara Reade Attends Seattle University School of Law

She graduated with a law degree in 2004. 

“When I was in Washington, D.C. I was sexually assaulted by someone you would know.”

While attending law school, Tara tells classmate Joseph Backholm that she was assaulted:

Tara Reade tells The Union about harassment in Biden’s office

Nevada County woman says Joe Biden inappropriately touched her while working in his U.S. Senate office

Tara tweets that she “only included experiences that had witnesses”

He was younger of course when I worked there so very strong presence. There was a more sexually dominant culture by men then that was socially acceptable and encouraged. I experienced it as I described. I only included experiences that had witnesses.

— Tara Reade (@ReadeAlexandra) April 9, 2019

Joe Biden guest stars on The View to address the allegations of inappropriate touching

When pressed, Biden offers half-apologies to Anita Hill, female accusers

Biden at first dodged questions about whether he would apologize directly to those who accused the former vice president of inappropriate physical conduct toward women, saying he was sorry “that they took it a different way.”

Tara Reade continues to try and get her story out to the media

“I went to media outlets [in] the summer and before January, nobody ever returned my call. Not one. I went to Warren, I wrote a letter to her… And I was supportive of her becoming president. I would have loved to have seen a woman president. I wrote [to] her. What happened—I alluded to it. I didn’t write details, but I wrote there was something wrong here… No response except a form letter to contact my local representative. I wrote [to] Kamala Harris, I wrote [to] AOC—not one person [responded]. I wrote [to] celebrities. I wrote to Ronan Farrow. I wrote the New Yorker, New York Times, Washington Post. And so I want people to know this. It’s not that easy to get your story heard. Not one person answered me, not one. Elizabeth Warren was the only one, and that was a form letter. And I felt so alone and isolated. And the only thing that would happen is once in a while when I would try to put it out on Twitter, saying, Hey, this is wrong, I’m being called a Russian agent, this happened. Biden supporters would just write…you’re a Russian agent, you’re a bot.” – Tara Reade

Tara gets in contact with Time’s Up

“I contacted TimesUp, which is an organization for women that helps them get resources if you apply for legal resources and to help you…they took my case and after they took my case, they contacted lawyers to see if there were conflicts [of interest]. Some replied and then when they heard about the full thing, the full account, they were worried about it… One of them was going to take it, but then two of his partners in another state were working in the Virginia Biden campaign. [He said] if Biden’s…gonna drop out after Virginia, I can represent you… Well then he never did because Biden didn’t drop out, right?” – Tara Reade

Tara learns that Time’s Up will not help her

“TimesUp got ahold of me [and said] that their lawyers told them their 501(c)(3) [status] would be at risk because it’s a presidential campaign and it’s too political and Biden was a candidate. And so they said, we can help you, but not with resources. So in other words, I needed a lawyer that would be for free, that would just volunteer their services. [TimesUp] couldn’t give me their platform, they couldn’t do anything as long as Biden was a candidate.” – Tara Reade

I pushed back a little and said I can’t help who the person is that did this, where do I go? And you know, they felt bad. I could tell. And so I don’t know if their organization was pressured by the people that fund it or sit on the board or…they said it was their attorneys, who said their 501(c)(3) would be at risk. And I don’t know why that would happen, but they said the political…I just…let it go because I mean, I’m not trying to trash TimesUp. They’re a good organization doing great work. And they even said they believed the veracity of my story…they want[ed] to help me. And they were trying to [help me] quietly, but they just couldn’t. So yeah…I’ve been standing alone pretty much. And of course one of the questions that was asked me was, well, are there more women? And I’m like, I don’t [know], how would I know this? – Tara Reade

Joe Biden campaign hires Anita Dunn, who previously offered Harvey Weinstein free PR advice

Joe Biden shakes up campaign by elevating veteran Democratic strategist Anita Dunn

via NBC

Anita Dunn had previously offered Harvey Weinstein PR advice free of charge.

Ryan Grim breaks the story about Time’s Up refusing to help Tara

TIME’S UP SAID IT COULD NOT FUND A #METOO ALLEGATION AGAINST JOE BIDEN, CITING ITS NONPROFIT STATUS AND HIS PRESIDENTIAL RUN

When reached for comment by The Intercept, the program director Reade had spoken to referred questions to a NWLC spokesperson, Maria Patrick, who said that the organization has legal constraints. “As a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization, the National Women’s Law Center is restricted in how it can spend its funds, including restrictions that pertain to candidates running for election,” Patrick responded, when asked why the organizing declined to provide funds to Reade. “Our decision on whether or not to provide certain types of support to an individual should not be interpreted as our validation or doubt of the truthfulness of the person’s statements. Regardless, our support of workers who come forward regarding workplace sexual harassment remains unwavering.”

Ruling out federal candidates marks as off-limits any member of Congress running for reelection, as well as President Donald Trump. Ellen Aprill, a professor of tax law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said that Time’s Up’s analysis is too conservative, and the group wouldn’t be putting its tax-exempt status at risk by taking a case involving a candidate for federal office as long as it followed its standard criteria for taking on cases. “As a legal matter, if the group is clear regarding the criteria used as to whom it is taking to court, show that these are long-established neutral criteria, and they are being applied to individuals completely independent of their running for office, it would not be a violation of tax law. Groups are allowed to continue to do what they have always done,” she said.

The public relations firm that works on behalf of the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund is SKDKnickerbocker, whose managing director, Anita Dunn, is the top adviser to Biden’s presidential campaign. A spokesperson for Biden declined to comment. The SKDK spokesperson assigned to Time’s Up referred questions back to the NWLC.

via The Intercept. Read more here.

Survivor starts petition demanding that Biden step down from the nomination due to Tara Reade’s allegation

Joe Biden is unacceptable.

In the era of #metoo and #timesup, how can we accept a democratic candidate with numerous credible accounts of harassment and assault? We have a choice. I say that not only because the primaries are not over, but because beating Donald Trump should not be the only ideal we strive to reach during this election. We cannot accept Biden as the democratic nominee.

I don’t want to live with myself knowing I voted for an abuser. I don’t want anyone else to live with that, either. And I don’t believe we have to. During this global pandemic much has changed rapidly, right before our eyes. It is our obligation as feminists, as democrats, and as empathetic human beings to demand more from the democratic party. We cannot allow them to prop up an abuser as our only option against Trump. We have the power now, in this chaotic and uncomfortable moment, to demand that Joe Biden step down.

https://www.change.org/StepDownBiden

Alyssa Milano Endorses Biden in spite of Reade’s allegation

“I just don’t feel comfortable throwing away a decent man that I’ve known for 15 years in this time of complete chaos without there being a thorough investigation and I’m sure that the mainstream media would be jumping all over this… if they found more evidence through their investigation. So I’m just sort of staying quiet about it.” – Alyssa Milano

See the original tweet and listen to the clip here.

Previously in 2019, Alyssa Milano had hosted Joe Biden on the first episode of her podcast Sorry Not Sorry during the same month that 8 women accused him of inappropriate touching.

Tara Reade files criminal complaint with DC Metro Police against Biden

Former staffer files criminal complaint against Joe Biden over 1993 sexual assault allegation

In an interview, Reade told Business Insider that she filed the report in part because she had become a target of harassment after her initial allegations became public last year, and she wanted “to simply have documentation in case anything happened.”

“I filed it because I had been harassed so badly last April,” Reade, 56, said on Thursday. “I also wanted to make it clear that I would be willing to go under oath or cooperate with any law enforcement regarding it, because it did happen. Even if it was 26 years ago.” Reade said she spent 45 minutes telling her story to a DC sex-crimes detective by phone from her home in California.

While the incident report obtained by Business Insider was anonymized for public release, it states that a subject “disclosed that she was the victim of a sexual assault which was committed by Subject-2 in 1993.” Reade confirmed that she was the complainant and that “Subject-2” is Biden.

via Business Insider. Read more here.

after taking 19 days to report on the allegation, The NYT delete tweet about Biden’s pattern of misconduct and stealth edit their article at the behest of his campaign

NYT Reports on Tara Reade’s Joe Biden Sexual Assault Allegation But Retracts Mention of Prior Sexual Misconduct

The New York Times published a piece in which several witnesses corroborate elements of Reade’s account. The Times came under fire for then deleting a sentence in the article — which was also tweeted out — detailing previous accusations against Biden. The New York Times originally wrote, “We found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Biden, beyond hugs, kisses and touching that women previously said made them uncomfortable.” The Times then removed the phrase “beyond hugs, kisses and touching that women previously said made them uncomfortable.”

Reported by Democracy Now. Read more here.

When executive editor of the Times Dean Banquet was asked about the edits, he admitted that the Biden campaign had requested them, saying, “I think that the campaign thought that the phrasing was awkward and made it look like there were other instances in which he had been accused of sexual misconduct. And that’s not what the sentence was intended to say.” Read the full interview here.

Backlash on Twitter was swift, as critics called out the paper for their hypocrisy:

Mirta Baselovic on Twitter

“@nytimes You changed the wrong part of the sentence”

Twitter thread by Katie Halper

“Thank you for pointing this out. The legacy media’s lack of, delay in, and then ultimately biased reporting on Tara Reade, is precisely why she, a progressive Democrat, who, as she told me, is “diametrically opposed” to Trump’s policies, is covered more by Fox and The Daily... https://t.co/U18ANfAYbo…

Twitter thread by Jerry Dunleavy

“Before & After https://t.co/lYL58hK3UI https://t.co/OWTtwoTna2”

Anonymous Source Alleges Assault by Biden

Do I have to vote for a rapist if I live in a swing state?

I, too, was sexually assaulted by Joe Biden. But if I go public, will I be called a liar? Will I be accused of being a Russian agent? Will my family and friends be attacked for corroborating my story? Will the media ignore me for weeks, followed by Alyssa Milano going on a podcast to suggest that that is a reason not to believe that it is true? Will the national media attempt to cast doubt upon my credibility? Will those on the short-list to become Biden’s vice-presidential nominee remain quiet and hope this blows over? Will half the country brush me aside and claim that at least my assaulter isn’t as bad as the current assaulter-in-chief?

– an anonymous blog post on Theology Corner. Read the whole post here.

Comedian Kate Willett comments on Biden’s VP picks being asked about assault before he is

Kate Willett on Twitter

“I find it really weird that the women under consideration for Biden’s VP slot are being asked about Biden’s sexual assault accusation before Biden is https://t.co/DLHSDsUxTz”

The Larry King Tape is unearthed, providing valuable corroborating evidence to Tara Reade’s allegations against Joe Biden

A new piece of evidence has emerged buttressing the credibility of Tara Reade’s claim that she told her mother about allegations of sexual harassment and assault related to her former boss, then-Sen. Joe Biden. Biden, through a spokesperson, has denied the allegations. Reade has claimed to various media outlets, including The Intercept, that she told her mother, a close friend, and her brother about both the harassment and, to varying degrees of detail, the assault at the time. Her brother, Collin Moulton, and her friend, who has asked to remain anonymous, both confirmed that they heard about the allegations from Reade at the time. Reade’s mother died in 2016, but both her brother and friend also confirmed Reade had told her mother, and that her mother, a longtime feminist and activist, urged her to go to the police.

via The Intercept. Reade more here.

Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams parrots Biden campaign talking points

Here are the talking points laid out by the Biden campaign:

“Biden believes that all women have the right to be heard and to have their claims thoroughly reviewed,” the talking points read, according to a copy sent to two Democratic operatives. “In this case, a thorough review by the New York Times has led to the truth: this incident did not happen.”

via Buzzfeed News.

And here is what Stacey Abrams said:

“I believe that women deserve to be heard and I believe they need to be listened to, but I also believe that those allegations have to be investigated by credible sources,” Abrams, who has made a public and direct pitch to be Biden’s running mate, told CNN’s Don Lemon on “CNN Tonight.”

“The New York Times did a deep investigation and they found that the accusation was not credible. I believe Joe Biden.”

The article later clarified that “The Times report that Abrams referred to did not make a determination on whether Reade’s allegation was credible.”

via CNN. Read more here.

DSA Socialist Feminists Call on Joe Biden to Drop Out

By defending Biden and attempting to discredit Reade, public figures and journalists are reviving the old standards of believability that kept generations of survivors from coming forward. Some progressives and feminists have attempted to acknowledge Reade’s legitimacy as a survivor while positing that Biden’s stature in the 2020 election against Trump is too important to risk damaging his chances by addressing the accusations.

We disagree. In fact, we believe it will only strengthen Trump’s agenda, should Biden’s behavior go unchallenged.

Read the full statement here.

Ilhan Omar: “I do believe Reade. Justice can be delayed, but should never be denied.”

Ilhan Omar says she believes Tara Reade’s sex assault claims against Biden

Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar said she believes the sexual assault claims leveled at former Vice President Joe Biden by former Senate staffer Tara Reade.

Read more here.

Tara Reade is Interviewed by Ryan Knight

Ryan Knight chats with survivor Tara Reade about her brave journey to come forward and speak her truth.

Listen to the episode