Will Joe Biden be forced to address sexual assault claim?
Former Senate staffer accuses Joe Biden of sexual assault; reaction and analysis from the 'Special Report' All-Star panel.
Former Georgia state Rep. Stacey Abrams has strongly defended former Vice President Joe Biden in response to questions about sexual assault allegations against the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
“I believe women deserve to be heard, and I believe that has happened here,” Abrams told HuffPost in an article published Tuesday. “The allegations have been heard and looked into, and for too many women, often, that is not the case. The New York Times conducted a thorough investigation, and nothing in the Times review or any other later reports suggests anything other than what I already know about Joe Biden: That he will make women proud as the next President of the United States.”
Tara Reade has alleged that Biden assaulted her while she worked as an aide in his Senate office in the early 1990s. On Monday, Business Insider published a story in which one of Reade's former neighbors, Lynda LaCasse claimed that Reade shared details about the alleged assault in the mid-1990s. One of Reade's former colleagues, Lorraine Sanchez, also told Business Insider that she remembered Reade complaining that her former boss harassed her.
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HuffPost said that it had requested comment on the Business Insider story and Reade's initial allegations from a long list of potential Biden running mates, including former presidential candidates and Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
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The outlet also reached out to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla., Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev.
None except Abrams responded. Biden has denied Reade's allegations.
Abrams famously lost her Georgia gubernatorial bid in 2018 but claimed voter suppression as the reason she lost the race. She's frequently tipped as a potential vice presidential pick and touted herself as an "excellent running mate" for Biden earlier this month.
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“I would be an excellent running mate," she told Elle magazine. "I have the capacity to attract voters by motivating typically ignored communities. I have a strong history of executive and management experience in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. I’ve spent 25 years in independent study of foreign policy. I am ready to help advance an agenda of restoring America’s place in the world. If I am selected, I am prepared and excited to serve.”
On Tuesday, the Biden campaign released a video in which 2016 Democratic preisdential nominee Hillary Clinton endorsed him for president. The endorsement took place during a "women's town hall," which didn't include discussion about Reade's allegation.
Reade, who voted for Clinton in 2016, accused the former top Democrat of "enabling a sexual predator."
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"I voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. I voted for her in the primary. I'm a lifelong Democrat. But yet, what I see now is someone enabling a sexual predator and it was my former boss, Joe Biden, who raped me," Reade told Fox News. "Hillary Clinton has a history of enabling powerful men to cover up their sexual predatory behaviors and their inappropriate sexual misconduct. We don't need that for this country. We don't need that for our new generation coming up that wants institutional rape culture to change."
She added: "I will not be smeared, dismissed or ignored. I stand in truth and I will keep speaking out."
Fox News' Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.