Tara Reade, the former Joe Biden Senate aide who has accused the presidential candidate of sexually assaulting her in 1993, is sharing her story with Megyn Kelly.
The former Fox News and NBC host posted her interview with Reade — making her first on-camera interview appearance since Biden denied her accusations last week — on her own “MK” YouTube channel. Reade, 56, has claimed that, while working as a staff assistant to Biden, the then-senator forced her against a wall in the halls of Congress and groped her under her shirt and skirt.Megyn Kelly✔@megynkelly
Former Biden staffer #TaraReade, who accuses FMR VP #JoeBiden of sexually assaulting her in 1993, sits down w/me in her first on-camera interview since Mr. Biden denied her accusations. Her story & some tough Q’s in a riveting exchange. A ton of news coming …
“There was no exchange, really, he just had me up against the wall,” she told podcast host Katie Halper this March, adding that Biden allegedly penetrated her with his fingers and told her, “Come on man, I heard you liked me.”
The former vice president, however, denied the allegations during a recent appearance on Morning Joe, as well as in a statement to the media.
“I’m saying unequivocally: It never, never happened,” the former vice president told Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski on May 1.
In a clip from her interview with Kelly, Reade — who reportedly turned down offers from other broadcasters in favor of Kelly — reacted to Biden’s denial and his statement that women who come forward should be presumed to be telling the truth.
“It’s been stunning, actually, how some of his surrogates with the blue checks [on Twitter] … have been saying really horrible things about me and to me on social media,” Reade responded. “He hasn’t himself, but there’s a measure of hypocrisy with the campaign saying ‘it’s safe.’
“It’s not been safe. 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 an ex-landlord, whatever it is — has been able to have a platform rather than me, talking about things that have nothing to do with 1993.”
She added that she got a death threat over a false rumor that she’s a Russian agent, saying, “they thought I was being a traitor to America.”
“His campaign is taking this position that they want all women to be able to speak safely?” she continued. “I have not experienced that.”
When asked by Kelly what she would like to tell Biden, Reade had this to say:
“You and I were there, Joe Biden,” she said. “Please step forward and be held accountable. You should not be running on character for the president of the United States.”
And when Kelly asked if she’d like Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, to drop out of the presidential race, she responded, “I wish he would. But he won’t but I wish he would. That’s how I feel emotionally.”
As for an apology? “I think it’s a little late.”
