Chris Wallace says it will take a “new smoking gun” related to former Senate staffer Tara Reade’s sexual assault allegations against Joe Biden for her name to make headlines throughout the 2020 election cycle.
The “Fox News Sunday” host made the remarks on Friday while speaking to colleague Bill Hemmer about the former vice president’s accuser; she says he violated her with his finger while pushing her up against a wall in 1993.
Mr. Hemmer mentioned Ms. Reade recent interview with journalist Megyn Kelley, in addition to recent court documents from 1996 to say it was “obvious” the story would last for another six months.
“I’m not sure she’s going to be around for six months,” Mr. Wallace countered during his “Bill Hemmer Reports” interview. “I mean, she’s told her story. You know, people will make of it what they will. You know, there is not any hard fact that there was this sexual assault. There’s certainly were some contemporaneous statements by her at the time. If not immediately in 1993, you get the statement from the ex-husband in 1996.”
Mr. Wallace then said that Mr. Biden may be spared further scrutiny because Ms. Reade’s ex-husband claimed sexual harassment was at hand instead of sexual assault.
“You know, that cuts both ways because, on the one hand, he says it was sexual harassment — there was nothing about sexual assault,” Mr. Wallace said, Mediaite reported. “So that may undercut her more serious charge. My own feeling about this is is that unless there is some new smoking gun that comes out or another woman — and there’s no reason to suspect that — but unless something new comes to feed the fire I think the Tara Reade story disappears like the Christine Blasey Ford story disappeared and like the women who made allegations against President Trump that their stories disappeared over time.”
Mr. Wallace’s prediction comes days after radio host Rush Limbaugh said almost the polar opposite would occur, in that Mr. Biden would be forced off the 2020 presidential ticket by skittish power players within the Democratic National Committee.
“Biden is somebody that’s not gonna be on the ticket anyway,” the conservative said Monday. “Something’s gonna happen. They can’t possibly, they can’t possibly go into the race with the guy on the ticket. … They know. At the highest levels of the Democrat National Committee, they know that Joe Biden has got to go. Nonstarter,” he added. “It’s a major, major problem.”
Mr. Biden categorically denied Ms. Reade’s claims during a recent appearance on MSNBC.
“They aren’t true,” he said May 1 during a “Morning Joe” appearance.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
