‘You should not be running’: Joe Biden accuser Tara Reade speaks out in first on-camera interview
The woman who has accused Joe Biden of sexual assault has called on the Democratic presidential candidate to stand down and said she has received death threats.
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The woman who accuses Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden of sexual assault has called on him to stand down and said she has received death threats.
In her first on-camera interview, Tara Reade said she would take a lie-detector test and repeated her allegations that he had assaulted her in a Capitol Hill corridor in 1993.
“I want to say, you and I were there, Joe Biden. Please step forward and be held accountable,” Ms Reade said.
“You should not be running on character, for president of the United States.”
Ms Reade, who had managed an intern program for Mr Biden’s office, had previously joined other women in accusing him of inappropriate touching.
But in March she said the then-senator had sexually assaulted her, a claim which Mr Biden has vehemently denied.
The allegation has rocked Mr Biden’s campaign, and Ms Reade said on Thursday, local time, that she hoped he would withdraw.
“I wish he would, but he won’t,” Ms Reade said.
“But I wish he would. That’s how I feel emotionally.”
After weeks of refusing to comment on the claims, Mr Biden last week gave an interview last week in which he denied the assault.
“It is not true,” the former vice president said.
“I’m saying unequivocally it never, never happened and it didn’t. It never happened.”
Ms Reade said she had been smeared by Mr Biden’s supporters and accused of being a Russian asset.
“It’s been stunning actually,” she said.
“Some of his surrogates have been saying really horrible things about me and to me on social media. He hasn’t himself but there is a measure of hypocrisy with the campaign, saying it is safe.”
“It has not been safe,” she said of the threats sparked by her allegations.
The comments were made in the first on-camera interview Ms Reade has taken part in. She chose to do it with broadcaster Megyn Kelly, who posted it to her Instagram and YouTube channel.
Ms Reade also challenged Mr Biden to sit for a polygraph.
“I’m not a criminal. Joe Biden should take the polygraph,” she said.
“I’ll take one if Joe Biden takes one.”