Earlier this month, I wrote a column asking what Democrats should do about sexual assault allegations against Joe Biden, the party’s presumptive nominee for president. My answer? Not much. The accusation made by Tara Reade, a former Biden staffer from his days in the Senate during the early 1990s, didn’t strike me as especially convincing, so Democrats, I suggested, could move forward without much concern. Though toward the end of the column I included two caveats: If Reade offered further corroboration of her claims or if evidence emerged of a larger pattern of abusive actions toward women on Biden’s part, that could well change my views of the matter.
Just two weeks later, both of my conditions have been met.
Last week we learned that Reade’s mother called into the Larry King Show in 1993 to talk about how her daughter had quit working for a “prominent senator” after unspecified “problems” as a staffer. Then earlier this week Business Insider reported that a former neighbor of Reade’s (a self-described “strong Democrat”) recalls a conversation with her in 1995 or 1996 in which Reade tearfully described being sexually assaulted by Biden. Together, those two stories help to corroborate Reade’s specific claim about herself.
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Article URL : https://theweek.com/articles/911495/how-tara-reades-allegations-could-bring-down-joe-biden