Biden says he does not want University of Delaware records searched amid Tara Reade allegations
Joe Biden argues searching the university's Senate records could expose past political positions that can be taken out of context during the campaign; Peter Doocy reports.
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Friday denied allegations of sexual assault leveled against him by former Senate staffer Tara Reade, finally addressing the claims more than a month after the accusations became public — but some critics were left wanting more answers from the former vice president.
Biden published a lengthy denial on Medium and then sat down with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski, who grilled him about why he won’t allow a search of his records from three decades as a senator, some of which are kept under seal at the University of Delaware.
BIDEN DENIES SEXUAL ASSAULT ALLEGATION, IN HIS FIRST COMMENTS ON TARA READE'S CLAIMS
“Biden has a serious problem. He cannot answer why he won’t authorize the release of records held by the University of Delaware that relate to Tara Reade. Until he releases these records this story will not go away,” conservative strategist Chris Barron told Fox News.
Spectator USA Washington editor Amber Athey said there were still “several issues” that Biden did not directly address during the unequivocal denial.
“He, for example, did not address the fact that multiple people have come forward to say that Reade told them about the allegation. He claimed that there’s absolutely zero chance a complaint could’ve made its way into the files at the University of Delaware. And he changed the essence of the Democratic standard on sexual assault — ‘believe women’ or ‘believe all women’ does not mean ‘women have the right to come forward,’ and he knows it,” Athey told Fox News.
Athey said that Biden obviously “deserves due process,” but “he also says women’s claims deserve to be investigated and that’s what should happen in this case — release the records, from both the Archives and the University of Delaware.”
"Biden says that the University of Delaware records only contain 'personal' files,” Athey added. “But couldn't this include emails, memos, or other office correspondence about Reade and her complaint?"
Brzezinski was largely praised for "grilling" Biden, going much harder on him than many expected. However, she failed to ask some questions that viewers had hoped to hear.
Many noted Biden was also not asked about an old neighbor of Reade, who recently said she heard about the claims years ago, or the now-infamous clip from "Larry King Live" in 1993 that recently resurfaced featuring a woman who purportedly was Reade’s mother, who has since died, calling in to discuss “problems” her daughter faced with a “prominent senator.”
“Why didn’t @morningmika bring up any corroborating evidence? If you only watched that interview you would think that no witnesses had come forward to back up Tara’s account. In fact her brother, friend, neighbor, Larry king live call and former work colleague all back her up,” former MSNBC host Krystal Ball tweeted.
“So that was a whole interview done by Mika Brzezinski that consisted of Biden denying everything and she never once brought up the clip of Tara Reade's mother on Larry King or her neighbor corroborating her story,” Daily Caller’s Greg Price wrote.
TARA READE RESPONDS AFTER DC POLICE SAY HER SEXUAL ASSAULT COMPLAINT AGAINST BIDEN IS 'INACTIVE'
Reade in late March accused her former boss, then-Senator Biden, of cornering her in a Senate office and assaulting her in 1993. Her story has changed over time, however. Reade and seven other women had come forward a year prior to accuse Biden of inappropriate contact but the story she told in March was far more graphic, raising the allegation to the level of sexual assault.
Biden’s campaign has frequently denied the allegation for him. Kate Bedingfield, deputy campaign manager and communications director for the Biden campaign, told Fox News, “Women have a right to tell their story, and reporters have an obligation to rigorously vet those claims. We encourage them to do so, because these accusations are false.”
The University of Delaware has told Fox News that the papers are "still being processed, with many items yet to be cataloged. The entire collection will remain closed to the public until two years after Mr. Biden retires from public life."
That was not always the University of Delaware's policy, however. It previously said the records would be released on Dec. 31, 2019, or two years after Biden "retires from public office." In April 2019, just hours before Biden announced his current presidential bid, the university changed its policy on the release of the records to say the papers wouldn't be released until either Dec. 31, 2019 or until two years after Biden “retires from public life,” whichever comes later, according to The Washington Post.
Biden on Friday stressed that any relevant records, however, would not be held at the university, but would be in the custody of the Archives. He failed to answer when asked whether or not he remembered Reade.
Others took to Twitter with thoughts on Biden’s denial:
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Fox News’ Tyler Olson, Morgan Phillips, Gregg Re and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.