Tara Reade says Joseph R. Biden should drop out of the 2020 presidential race and says she is ready to take a polygraph test under one condition: the former vice president does the same.
Mr. Biden last week publicly denied Ms. Reade’s accusation that he sexually assaulted her decades ago, saying it never happened.
Ms. Reade on Thursday pushed back, telling former Fox News host Megyn Kelly that Mr. Biden is lying and should pull the plug on his White House bid.
MK EXCLUSIVE: #TaraReade responds to #JoeBiden; calls for him to drop out pic.twitter.com/jxHAUYaWVU
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) May 7, 2020
“I wish he would,” Mr. Reade said, after being asked whether Mr. Biden should drop out. “He won’t, but I wish he would.”
Mr. Biden said last week that Ms. Reade has the right to share her story, but that it keeps changing and is full of inaccuracies.
“They aren’t true,” Mr. Biden said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “This never happened.”
The accusation has put a dent in Mr. Biden’s bid.
Polls show that some Democrats believe the party should replace him on the ticket. Other surveys have shown the appears to be weathering the storm and remains well-positioned in a general election race against President Trump.
Meanwhile, Ms. Reade’s credibility has been fiercely debated in large part because her story has evolved over time.
When she first came forward last year she said that Mr. Biden’s handy handsy style, unwanted touching, and creepy comments made her feel uncomfortable when she worked in his Senate office in the early 1990’s.
Things escalated in March when she resurfaced with a new allegation that Mr. Biden in 1993 pinned her up against a wall in the Capitol building, put his hand under her dress, and penetrated her with his fingers.
Since then she has joined a chorus of critics in accusing Democrats of being hypocrites for believing Christine Blasey Ford’s decades-old accusation of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and then refusing to give her the same benefit of the doubt.
On Thursday, Ms. Reade said she’s willing to take a polygraph test to prove she is not lying - as long as Mr. Biden does the same.
“I’m not a criminal,” Ms. Reade said. “Joe Biden should take the polygraph.”
“What kind of precedent does that set for survivors of violence?” she said. “Does that mean we are presumed guilty and we all have to take polygraphs?”
“So I will take one if Joe Biden takes one,” Ms. Reade said. “But I’m not a criminal.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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