Video clip from the 1990s could shed light on sexual assault allegations against Biden
A video clip from the 1990s could shed light on sexual assault allegations against Joe Biden, Jacqui Heinrich reports.
The woman who has accused Joe Biden of a sexual assault in the early 1990s blasted actress-turned-activist Alyssa Milano for defending the former vice president after being a vocal opponent of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his 2018 confirmation.
Earlier this month, Milano addressed the assault accusation made by Biden's former Senate staffer, Tara Reade, and defended the Democrats' presumptive presidential nominee, whom she had endorsed. The prominent #MeToo activist had made a splashy appearance at the tense Kavanaugh confirmation hearings in support of his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford.
"I think we need to compare how she responded to Brett Kavanaugh... quite different than the talking points she [used] regarding Joe Biden," Reade told Fox News. "She never reached out to me. I don't really want to amplify her voice because I feel like she hijacked my narrative for a while and framed it about herself... she knows nothing about it."
Tara Reade criticized Alyssa Milano, left, for her response to the sexual-assault allegation against former Vice President Joe Biden, right. (Montage)
The Biden accuser blasted the former "Charmed" star for suggesting that Time's Up, the organization founded during the #MeToo movement that has offered legal assistance to alleged victims, "didn't take me" as a client or "made it sound like that there was no veracity to my claims." Reade told Fox News she's still "technically" a client of Time's Up and the National Women’s Law Center but they had refused to fund her case because they didn't want to risk jeopardizing their tax-exempted statuses since her claim was against someone running in an election, as The Intercept reported.
Reade explained that she was still listed in the organization's platform so if she sought referrals for an attorney, Time's Up would provide them without offering financial assistance.
A source clarified to Fox News that Reade nor any survivor is considered a "client" of the Time's Up Legal Defense Fund but will help anyone who is seeking help regarding references to attorneys and that it's only the attorneys who may or may not accept them as clients.
Milano "only knows Joe Biden, so she doesn't know me and has never talked to me. So, how could she possibly talk about the case?" Reade asked. "She went on an interview... saying that Time's Up rejected me and that's not true, and she said she talked to Time's Up."
In response to Milano calling for "due process" for men accused of sexual assault, Reade said, "she really doesn't know anything about what happened to me," calling it "odd" that she would weigh in on an assault claim when she never attempted to seek information from the accuser.
Actress Alyssa Milano watching the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing of future Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in September 2018. (Matt McClain/Pool via REUTERS, File)
"I don't what her role is. She's not really a professional helping women. She was basically talking about protecting powerful men the last time she made a statement," Reade said. "It's just the complete opposite of how she approached Brett Kavanaugh, so it's kind of weird and strange and I think she's just looking for ways to be relevant."
Representatives for Milano did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment. Fox News also reached out to Time's Up for clarification on Reade's current status there.
During the recent radio interview with Andy Cohen, Milano addressed "the silence" that sparked criticism after she went weeks without weighing in on the sexual-assault claim against Biden.
"I had not publicly said anything about this. If you remember, it kind of took me a long time to say anything about Harvey [Weinstein] as well -- because I believe that even though we should believe women... but that does not mean at the expense of giving men their due process and investigating situations," Milano said to Cohen. "It's got to be fair in both directions."
Milano then pointed to a report about how the Time's Up Legal Defense Fund chose not to take up Reade's case as part of her reasoning to support Biden, although she didn't mention any concerns about the group jeopardizing its nonprofit status.
"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," Milano explained.
BIDEN SKATES THROUGH TV INTERVIEWS AS ANCHORS AVOID QUESTIONS ABOUT TARA READE'S ASSAULT CLAIM
The vocal #MeToo activist dismissed hypocrisy claims from critics. Cohen called them "Bernie Bros," and Milano agreed.
"We're destroying lives if we publicly don't go through the right steps in order to find out if an accusation is credible or not," Milano added.
Reade's story first resurfaced in an article in The Intercept on March 24. Podcast host Katie Halper then interviewed Reade, who said that in 1993, a more senior member of Biden's staff asked her to bring the then-senator his gym bag near the U.S. Capitol building, which led to the encounter in question.
"He greeted me, he remembered my name, and then we were alone. It was the strangest thing," Reade told Halper. "There was no like, exchange really. He just had me up against the wall."
Reade said that she was wearing "a business skirt," but "wasn't wearing stockings — it was a hot day."
She continued: "His hands were on me and underneath my clothes, and he went down my skirt and then up inside it and he penetrated me with his fingers and he was kissing me at the same time and he was saying some things to me."
Reade claimed Biden first asked if she wanted "to go somewhere else."
"I pulled away, he got finished doing what he was doing," Reade said. "He said: 'Come on, man. I heard you liked me.'"
Reade said she tried to share her story last year, but nobody listened to her. Earlier this month, she filed a criminal complaint against Biden with police in Washington, D.C.
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Fox News reached out to the Biden campaign for comment. The campaign referred Fox News to a statement earlier this month from Biden Deputy Campaign Manager Kate Bedingfield that read: "What is clear about this claim: it is untrue. This absolutely did not happen."
"Vice President Biden has dedicated his public life to changing the culture and the laws around violence against women," Bedingfield continued. "He authored and fought for the passage and reauthorization of the landmark Violence Against Women Act. He firmly believes that women have a right to be heard - and heard respectfully. Such claims should also be diligently reviewed by an independent press."
Fox News' Alex Pappas contributed to his report.