New information has emerged in recent days about the allegations against the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, made by Tara Reade, a former staff assistant in Biden’s Senate office. For the first time, someone has gone on the record to say that Reade detailed the allegation to her decades ago in the same way Reade is describing it now.
Tara Reade says that when she worked in Biden’s Senate office in 1993, Biden pushed her against a wall in a Senate office building, put his hand up her skirt and assaulted her with his fingers. She says she told family and complained to Biden’s then-executive assistant as well as two top aides, Dennis Toner and Ted Kaufman.
CNN reported on Tuesday that Reade’s ex-neighbor said Reade told her about the alleged assault in the mid-1990s, and a newly surfaced 1993 video appears to feature the mother of Reade calling into “Larry King Live” to seek advice around the time of the alleged assault about how to handle “problems” her daughter had while working for a prominent US senator.
In the newly discovered video from a 1993 episode of CNN’s Larry King Live surfaced last week that Reade says includes her mother, whom Reade says she told about the alleged assault at the time. Reade’s mother has since died.
Video👇🏻@ReadeAlexandra — is this your Mom’s voice? https://t.co/ospBhlKSvb pic.twitter.com/r5WsXJ2vQb
— Rich McHugh (@RichMcHugh) April 24, 2020
Lynda LaCasse told CNN in a phone interview Monday that she remembers stepping out of her two-bedroom home in Morro Bay, California, to sneak in a cigarette break away from her children. It was 1995, perhaps even early 1996, based on her recollection. LaCasse said she often sat outside on her stoop smoking Virginia Slims, and that on this particular day, she cried as she discussed with Reade a custody battle for her kids.
Reade began to cry too, LaCasse said.
“She started talking about Joe Biden. And I didn’t really know much about Joe Biden,” she said. LaCasse said that Reade told her that when she was working in Washington some years prior, Biden “had pushed her up against a wall and he put his hand up her skirt and he put his fingers inside of her, and she was dealing with the aftermath of that.”
The Biden campaign has denied Reade’s allegation that Biden assaulted her in 1993 when she was an aide in his Senate office. Asked for comment about LaCasse’s account, the Biden campaign referred to a statement previously released by deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield.
“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. He firmly believes that women have a right to be heard — and heard respectfully,” Bedingfield said. “Such claims should also be diligently reviewed by an independent press. What is clear about this claim: it is untrue. This absolutely did not happen.”