House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has hit back at the sexual assault allegation levied against Joe Biden by former staffer Tara Reade, claiming that the incident “didn’t happen.”
During a Tuesday MSNBC interview, Pelosi appeared frustrated after being asked about the allegations against the presumptive Democratic nominee.
Pelosi declared that she believes Biden “when he says it didn’t happen,” telling host Ari Melber that she was “not going to answer this question again.”
“Joe Biden speaking out, just days ago on that allegation of a sexual assault,” Melber said.
“Now that he has given that answer, do you view this as a closed issue, and what is your response?”
“Well, it is for me. I have said, I am proud to support Joe Biden for president,” Pelosi said.
“I believe him when he says it didn’t happen, but I also believe him when he said let them look into the records and that’s what they should do.”
“But, I’m not going to answer this question again,” she snapped, adding that she has confidence that Biden will be a “great president” because he cares about health care and job security.
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Nypost.com reports: “He brings those values and his personal experience to a vision for America that is about fairness and not trickle-down economics, but bubble-up from that kitchen table, from working families in our country,” Pelosi said.
The former vice president responded to the claims by Tara Reade, who worked as a staffer in Biden’s Senate office in 1993, during an interview last Friday.
“It is not true. I’m saying it unequivocally — it never happened. It didn’t. It never happened,” Biden said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“This is an open book. There’s nothing for me to hide. Nothing at all,” he added.
Biden said he wasn’t aware of a complaint Reade said she made and suggested the secretary of the Senate search its records for a mention of it.
Secretary of the Senate Julie Adams said on Monday the chamber has “no discretion to disclose any such information” because of confidentiality requirements under the law.
Reade has acknowledged that she did not use the words “sexual harassment” or “sexual assault” in the complaint.
Sean Adl-Tabatabai