Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida announced Wednesday that former Joe Biden U.S. Senate staffer Tara Reade has been invited to Capitol Hill to be interviewed about Biden’s alleged sexual assault of her.
Reade tweeted Sunday, “So I am not a former porn star nor did I receive ‘hush money.’ I was a Senate staffer for Joe Biden when he sexually assaulted me in 1993. To date no investigation, only media attacks and trolls aimed at me. I ask again to @mtgreenee and @mattgaetz when will Joe Biden be investigated? Thanks.”
Former President Donald Trump has been accused of paying $130,000 in hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016 to not disclose an alleged sexual liaison they had in 2006. Trump had denied the encounter took place.
GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia responded to Reade Monday: “Tara, Thank you for bravely speaking out about such a horrible sexual assault you endured by your boss, then Senator Joe Biden, as a young staffer. It’s time to take a stand against the two-tiered injustice system.”
“[Matt Gaetz] and I would like to invite you to come to Washington to speak with us. We will be in touch very soon,” she added.
Trending:
Tara,
Thank you for bravely speaking out about such a horrible sexual assault you endured by your boss, then Senator Joe Biden, as a young staffer.
It’s time to take a stand against the two-tiered injustice system. @RepMattGaetz and I would like to invite you to come to… https://t.co/iCibhUortI— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) March 20, 2023
Gaetz announced via a video posted on social media Wednesday, “Tara Reade will be coming in to give a transcribed interview. We will get the facts.”
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer “has blessed this to Congresswomen Greene directly. And that is why we are endeavoring to follow the facts. Isn’t that a good thing? To actually look at the facts, evaluate the evidence. Work to corroborate claims that are made and ultimately attempt to achieve a just result. That is what we ought to do,” Gaetz said.
Should Joe Biden be investigated for sexual assault?
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Reade responded by thanking Gaetz and Greene on Twitter.
Thank you @mattgaetz and @RepMTG for allowing me the chance to testify about what happened in 1993. https://t.co/oynvjw0toF
— Tara Reade 🐎 (@ReadeAlexandra) March 22, 2023
Gaetz noted that Reade’s mom did call into CNN’s “Larry King Live” show in August saying her daughter had just left Washington, D.C., “after working for a prominent senator” who assaulted her, but chose not to contact the press at the time.
In December, Reade called on the new House Republican majority to investigate Biden’s alleged sexual assault of her.
“I think we need to have the conversation, instead of me being erased, and other women that were erased that tried to come forward,” Reade told The Daily Caller.
According to Reade, then-Sen. Biden pinned her against the wall in a Senate corridor, reached under her clothing and sexually violated her.
“It happened at once. He’s talking to me and his hands are everywhere and everything is happening very quickly,” she told The New York Times in 2020. “He was kissing me and he said, very low, ‘Do you want to go somewhere else?’”
Reade told the Times that she pulled away and Biden stopped.
“He looked at me kind of almost puzzled or shocked,” she said. “He said, ‘Come on, man, I heard you liked me.’”
“He pointed his finger at me and he just goes: ‘You’re nothing to me. Nothing,’” she said. “Then, he took my shoulders and said, ‘You’re OK, you’re fine.’”
Biden left and Reade went to the restroom she said to clean herself up. She then went home sobbing and called her mother, who encouraged her to file a police report.
Reade later filed a written complaint with the Senate personnel office, she told the Times.
Her complaint about the alleged incident was not received well by her superiors, she said. Reade said she’d been “threatened” and, in the end, dismissed. She said one staff member told her, “we’ll f***ing destroy you, if you go forward,” according to the Daily Caller.
“I was 28 years old. It was scary to hear at the time. It was at the beginning of my political career, and it kind of shut me up,” she said.
The Times reported that Reade “said office [Biden] staff took away most of her duties, including supervising the interns; assigned her a windowless office; and made the work environment uncomfortable for her.”
“Two former interns who worked with her said they never heard her describe any inappropriate conduct by Mr. Biden or saw her directly interact with him in any capacity but recalled that she abruptly stopped supervising them in April, before the end of their internship,” according to the news outlet.
A supervisor then told her she wasn’t a good fit for the office and gave her a month to look for another position, but she never secured another job in D.C.
So between the call into “Larry King Live” and the interns’ accounts, there seems to be some corroborating evidence to Reade’s story.
In November 2020, Biden denied her allegation telling MSNBC, “No, it is not true. I’m saying unequivocally it never, never happened.”
Biden also said at the time he was prepared to release any complaint that may have been filed at the time, but he was not aware of any.
Reade was largely ignored during the 2020 presidential campaign when the issue become public, but it looks like her allegations will now get a full airing and review.
The American people can then weigh her credibility and how the allegation impacts the way they view Biden.
