Sexual assault allegation leaves top Democratic women grappling with support for Biden
Some leading Democratic women are throwing their support behind Joe Biden after an allegation of sexual assault that has come to light in recent months.
Those leaders include prominent Democrats all rumored to be on Biden’s list for a running mate, including Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Sen. Kamala Harris of California, along with Stacey Abrams, the former minority leader in the Georgia state house who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2018, according to multiple reports.
Former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, one of the most vocal #MeToo supporters in the U.S. Senate, have both endorsed Biden’s presidential bid.
“Vice President Biden has vehemently denied these allegations and I support Vice President Biden,” Gillibrand said on a recent video call with reporters, according to the Glen Falls, New York, Post-Star.
The founder of the Me Too movement Tarana Burke said she was grappling with Tara Reade’s allegations about Biden that date back to the 1990s — but added the former vice president could still be “accountable and electable.”
Reade first accused Biden, then a Delaware senator, of massaging her shoulders and neck, making her feel uncomfortable when she worked in his office between 1992 and 1993, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Last month Reade made a second accusation, saying Biden cornered her in the Senate Office Building and touched her genitals, according to The New York Times.
Two women — one a former next-door neighbor of Reade’s and another a former coworker — both said they recalled Reade telling them in the mid-1990s that a former boss had sexually harassed her, according to Business Insider.
Family members also recalled hearing about the allegations decades ago.
“In another recent interview, Reade’s brother, Collin Moulton, said she told him in 1993 that Biden had behaved inappropriately by touching her neck and shoulders,” according to The Washington Post. “Their mother urged Reade to contact the police, Moulton said, adding that he felt ‘ashamed now for not being a better advocate’ for his sister. Several days after that interview, he said in a text message that he recalled her telling him that Biden had put his hand ‘under her clothes.’”
Biden’s campaign has denied the allegations.
“Vice President Biden has dedicated his public life to changing the culture and the laws around violence against women. He authored and fought for the passage and reauthorization of the landmark Violence Against Women Act,” Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s deputy campaign manager and communications director, told Politico. “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,” Bedingfield added, according to the outlet. “What is clear about this claim: it is untrue. This absolutely did not happen.”
Stacey Abrams, a former Georgia gubernatorial candidate and possible Biden running mate, told CNN, “I know Joe Biden and I think he’s telling the truth and that this did not happen.”
“I believe that women deserve to be heard and I believe they need to be listened to, but I also believe that those allegations have to be investigated by credible sources,” Abrams said, according to CNN.
Longtime South Carolina Democrat and state legislator Gilda Cobb-Hunter told The Washington Post, “I don’t want to minimize what happened to her. I’ve spent too many years doing this work to do that.”
Cobb-Hunter, who also serves as the president of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators, said she will support the former vice president. But, she said, “I think he needs to say something forceful so that we can try to put it behind us,” The Post reports.
Burke, who launched the Me Too movement, shared her take on Twitter: “The inconvenient truth is that this story is impacting us differently because it hits at the heart of one of the most important elections of our lifetime. And I hate to disappoint you but I don’t really have easy answers.”
“There are no perfect survivors. And no one, especially a presidential candidate, is beyond reproach. So where does that leave us?” she said in the thread.
“What we have now is a zero-sum game where absolutely no one wins, in part because most people weighing in at the moment don’t actually care about transforming a culture of sexual violence,” Burke said. “Many of you are only interested in this story because you are entertained by the trauma of others or because it has the potential to be politically expedient - with no real regard for the survivor.”
This story was originally published April 29, 2020 at 11:35 AM.
