President Trump has laid into former vice president Joe Biden’s denial of a 1993 sexual assault allegation by a former Senate staffer.
‘I mean, his choice of words weren’t very good when he, you know, dismissed the allegation,’ Trump said of Biden during an interview with The New York Post in the Oval Office.
‘But he’s got to fight his own battles, and we’ll see how he does.’
President Trump said during an interview with the New York Post that Joe Biden’s ‘choice of words’ were not good during his televised denial of an assault allegation by a former Senate staffer
During an interview on Friday, Biden, who is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, flatly denied former aide Tara Reade’s claim stating the alleged assault ‘never happened’
During a televised interview on Friday, Biden, who is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, flatly denied former aide Tara Reade’s claim stating the alleged assault ‘never happened’.
It was Biden’s first public statement on the issue, coming after pressure from Democrats to address it directly.
The former vice president released a lengthy public statement and spent 20 minutes of a live interview on ‘Morning Joe’ repeatedly denying Reade’s charge that he sexually assaulted her in a Senate hallway in the 1990s.
‘They aren’t true. This never happened,’ Biden said in a statement made shortly before he was scheduled to appear on MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe.’
Tara Reade accused Biden of putting his hand up her skirt in a Congressional hallway in 1993 and penetrated her
Biden faced an intense series of questions from MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski about why Tara Reade shouldn’t be believed while other women should be during Friday’s broadcast
But he faced an intense series of questions from co-host Mika Brzezinski about why Reade shouldn’t be believed while other women should be. She also questioned Biden repeatedly about why he won’t open up his Senate papers.
Brzezinski brought up Biden’s support for Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault when they were in high school.
‘Why is it real for Dr. Ford but not for Tara Reade?,’ she asked.
Biden fumbled a bit as he answered, bringing up his long support for women’s rights, the right for women to be heard but arguing ‘ultimately the truth matters.’
‘They should come forward. They should be heard, and then it should be investigated,’ the former vice president said. ‘She makes the case or the case is made, then it should be believed, but ultimately the truth matters. The truth matters. It’s period.’
‘I don’t know what else I can say to you,’ he added.
‘Look, women are to be believed and given the benefit of the doubt if they come forward and say something that is — that they said happened to them, they should start off with the presumption they’re telling the truth,’ Biden said.
‘Then you have to look at the circumstances and the facts. And the facts in this case do not exist. They never happened, and there’s so many inconsistencies in what has been said in this case. So yes, look at the facts and I assure you it did not happen, period. Period,’ Biden said.
During Trump’s interview with the Post on Monday, the president did not state what specific part of Biden’s denial he did not approve of but said that Republicans face harsher scrutiny when accused of sexual misconduct.
‘Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was treated more unfairly than any human being I’ve ever seen. I’ve never seen anything like,’ Trump said.
‘He’s a fine man with a fine family,’ Trump continued ‘And there’s never been a human being in the history of Congress that was treated worse than him.’
During his confirmation hearings in 2018, Kavanaugh faced misconduct allegations regarding his teen and college years from Stanford University psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford, and other women, some who later recanted.
Trump pointed out that Democrats treated Joe Biden differently to how they treated Brett Kavanaugh during his Supreme Court nomination hearing in 2018
Joe Biden was asked why Christine Blasey Ford should be believed in her allegation against Brett Kavanaugh and Tara Reade should not be
‘And now in the meantime three of the women have recanted,’ Trump said.
‘And the other one I don’t believe her for a moment, which is Blasey Ford. Because the story doesn’t check out. Even her friends and her family didn’t check out. Everything didn’t check out including the door. You know, the double door, right? You know what I mean.’
‘Nothing checked out. And there’s ever been a human being who has been treated more unfairly than a very fine man named Justice Kavanaugh.’
During the Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation hearings in September 2018, Biden said he believed Ford was telling the truth.
Joe Biden said Tara Reade’s charge against him should be investigated but also pointed out her story has inconsistencies
‘For a woman to come forward in the glaring lights of focus, nationally, you’ve got to start off with the presumption that at least the essence of what she’s talking about is real, whether or not she forgets facts, whether or not it’s been made worse or better over time,’ he told reporters.
Brzezinski asked Biden: ‘Why is it different now? Do you regret what you said during the Kavanaugh hearings?’
‘What I said during the Kavanaugh hearings was that she had a right to be heard, and the fact that she came forward, the presumption would be she’s telling the truth unless it’s proved she wasn’t telling the truth,’ he said.
President Trump on Friday predicted more accusers would come out against Joe Biden