After Joe Biden Denies Sexual Assault Allegations of Former Aide Tara Reade, What’s Next?

After former Vice President Joe Biden was accused of sexually assaulting his one-time senate aide, two things have emerged: his accuser, Tara Reade‘s, disappointment in doubters and Biden’s denial of the accusation.

Reade, 56, worked for Biden nearly 30 years ago as a staff assistant when he was a senator for Delaware. During her employment, she claims that Biden sexually assaulted her. To that, Biden told MSNBC on Friday that “unequivocally, it never, never happened.”

After years of keeping her secret, Reade filed a criminal complaint with the police on April 9, 2020, without naming her attacker. Even though the statute of limitations had expired for her claim, she stated in a Tweet that she made the claim “for safety reasons only,” as she was receiving online threats.

Reade is just one of several women who have recently stepped forward to accuse Biden of sexually inappropriate touching, hugging or kissing.  Three people have backed Reade’s account of the assault, though they were not witnesses to the incident. Reade’s brother, her former neighbor (Lynda LaCasse), and a former colleague have all backed Reade’s claim, saying that she described the assault from her boss shortly after the incident occurred.

The incident allegedly took place in 1993 when Reade was 28 and was working for Biden, who chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time. She claims he shoved her against a wall, reached up under her skirt, and “put his fingers inside her” when she was delivering him a gym bag.

DARRIAN TRAYNOR/GETTY; TARA READE/TWITTER

According to Reade, she had great respect for Biden as her boss and did not want to sully his reputation. She claims that she was also not sure if she verbally said “no” or not, remembering that Biden was surprised when she pulled away, saying that he had heard that she liked him.

Concerned, Reade’s mother allegedly called in to “Larry King Live” after her daughter told her about the incident, asking for advice. The Intercept recently unearthed audio of the call. Reade’s mother, who died in 2016, told King her daughter had just left Washington “after working for a prominent senator, and could not get through with her problems at all, and the only thing she could have done was go to the press, and she chose not to do it out of respect for him.”

Reade said she didn’t share her story while Biden was previously in the White House because she told the Intercept’s Ryan Grim that she didn’t want the story to impact her then-teenage daughter and because she liked former President Barack Obama. She also stated that she didn’t know how to come forward in a pre-#MeToo era.

Biden’s executive assistant Marrianne Baker said, “I have absolutely no knowledge or memory of Ms. Reade’s accounting of events, which would have left a searing impression on me as a woman professional, and as a manager.”

Reade says she has been “smeared” by the Democrats she once admired after coming forward with her claim against Biden. “I just— I’m stunned,” Reade said to Buzzfeed. “They didn’t just say, ‘Oh, we’re standing with Joe Biden until we hear more.’ They just discounted me. They marginalized me. They said they didn’t believe me.”

She added, “I can’t tell you. I cried for a while because they’re important in my life. They’ve been figures that I looked up to.” The “they” Reade mentioned include political figures such as Hillary Clinton, Stacey Abrams, and Kirsten Gillibrand.

“I’d like to be heard in a fair and objective way,” she told Insider. “And I’d also like to hear Joe Biden’s response, which has not happened. My hope is that the conversation will move forward and we will examine how I was treated when I came forward and really look at the fact that like domestic violence, sexual assault, and sexual harassment is not a partisan issue. It is an equal-opportunity offender.”

Like Trump’s sexual assualt accusers during the 2016 election cycle, Biden may never have to formally face Reade or any of his accusers. The only real test of what people believe will come from the conscience of American voters in November 2020. Trump supporters didn’t seem to mind or believe it, but will Biden’s?