Tara Reade’s lawyer says Bill Maher’s comments on Friday’s “Real Time” about her and her sexual assault accusation against Joe Biden are “recycling old rape myths.”
“Sadly, Bill Maher has decided to recycle old rape myths,” Douglas H. Wigdor said in a statement to TheWrap. “He ought to be ashamed, and I expect that those who believe in the #metoo movement will join me in condemning him for his hurtful words that unfortunately, will act as a deterrent to survivors that grapple with coming forward because of comments such as his.”
Maher waded into the accusation by the former Senate staffer that Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993. And in his view, whatever the truth of the matter turns out to be, it’s not worth destroying Biden’s candidacy if it gives Donald Trump another four years as president. Maher also referenced what he said are the apparent inconsistencies in Reade’s story. “Yes, Biden’s accuser, Tara Reade, has been contradicted by multiple people. Most importantly, Tara Reade. Just last year, she said of Biden, ‘I wasn’t scared of him, that he was going to take me in a room or anything. It wasn’t that kind of vibe.’”
“She suggested she had filed a sex harassment report. Now, she says she didn’t. She says she was fired by Biden’s office, but in deleted posts she said she left because quote, ‘I love Russia with all my heart… President Putin scares the power elite in America because he is a compassionate, caring, visionary leader. His obvious reverence for women, children and animals, and his ability with sports, is intoxicating to American women,’” Maher continued.
Maher went on to complain that “we’re letting this person change the subject from ‘Donald Trump, lethal incompetent’ to ‘Joe Biden, sex monster’? She literally wrote a love letter to the murderer trying to keep Biden from the White House,” referencing the extrajudicial murders carried out on foreign soil linked to Putin.
According to Rich McHugh, a former NBC News journalist, Reade filed a police report on April 9, 2020, about the incident, in which she 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.
“I know it’s a sex scandal and, in normal times, that’s what we do instead of issues, but there are actually some pretty big problems going on right now,” Maher said during his show. “We can choose not to completely f– ourselves over this. I don’t know if you noticed but America has turned into a failed state that does a worse job keeping it citizens alive during a pandemic than Cambodia.”
“And to me, that’s a little more important than Tara Reade achieving closure. She says Biden attacked her, and he says he didn’t. Those are their positions. How about this for yours? Don’t know, never will, don’t care,” Maher said. “I care in the macro about women being attacked, of course, but on this one, I’m with Bogey, who said, ‘I’m no good at being noble, but it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.’”