Tara Reade said she wants Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race and be “held accountable” for what she says was a sexual assault in 1993.
“You want him to withdraw?” Megyn Kelly asked the former Senate staffer in an exclusive on-camera interview posted online Thursday.
“I wish he would. But he won’t. But I wish he would. That’s how I feel emotionally,” Reade responded.
When asked what she’d like to say to Biden, Reade said she didn’t think the former vice president should be “running on character” for the White House. “I want to say, ‘You and I were there, Joe Biden. Please, step forward and be held accountable.’” (Biden has “unequivocally” denied the accusation and said it “never, ever happened.”)
According to Rich McHugh, a former NBC News journalist who produced Kelly’s interview, Reade filed a police report on April 9, 2020, about the incident, in which Reade has said the Delaware Democrat pushed her up against a wall and digitally penetrated her when she worked in his Senate office in 1993. She has also said she filed a personnel complaint that has not yet surfaced publicly.
Since coming forward with her accusations, Reade said she has been attacked on social media by some Biden supporters and has accused the Democrat’s campaign of “hypocrisy.”
“It’s been stunning actually how some of his surrogates … have been saying really horrible things about me and to me on social media. He hasn’t himself, but there’s a measure of hypocrisy with the campaign saying it’s safe. It’s not been safe,” she told Kelly in the interview, which was posted to the former Fox News and NBC News host’s social media platforms.
“All my social media’s been hacked. All my personal information’s been dragged through. Every person that maybe has a gripe against me, an ex-boyfriend or ex-landlord, or whatever it is, has been able to have a platform, rather than me, talking about things that have nothing to do with 1993,” she said. “These are serious things. And his campaign is taking this position that they want all women to be able to speak safely. I have not been able to experience that.”
Reade also said she would “absolutely” be willing to go under oath and face cross-examination about her account but said that she shouldn’t be expected to take a polygraph unless Biden does as well.
“I’m not a criminal. Joe Biden should take the polygraph. What kind of precedent does that set for survivors of violence? Does that mean we’re presumed guilty and we all have to take polygraphs? So, I will take one if Joe Biden takes one. But I’m not a criminal,” Reade said.
A spokesperson for the Biden campaign did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
Watch the interview below:
MK EXCLUSIVE: #TaraReade responds to #JoeBiden; calls for him to drop out pic.twitter.com/jxHAUYaWVU
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) May 7, 2020
MK EXCLUSIVE: Will Tara Reade go under oath or take a polygraph? pic.twitter.com/aBXohhg14n
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) May 7, 2020