House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she will no longer answer questions about the sexual assault allegation against presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
Tara Reade, who worked for Biden’s Senate office in 1992 and 1993, says Biden sexually assaulted her at the U.S. Capitol in 1993.
Biden denied the claim last week, publicly addressing the matter for the first time. Asked May 5 about Biden’s answer, Pelosi said “I believe him when he says it didn’t happen.”
“But I also believe him when he says let them look into the records, and that’s what they should do,” she said during an appearance on MSNBC’s “The Beat.”
Reade said she filed a document with a Senate office about what allegedly happened. Biden asked the secretary of the Senate to try to find any documentation of Reade’s complaint.
Pelosi then said she won’t answer questions about the sexual assault allegation.
“I’m not going to answer this question again. I will just say I have every confidence that Joe Biden will be a great President of the United States, not only because of the person of integrity that he is, but the person of vision that he is for just some of the things you talked about, about health care for all Americans, about job security, about the kitchen table issues that he is so familiar with in his own family when his father lost his own job,” she said.
“Joe Biden is Joe Biden,” she added.
Top Democrats have closed ranks around Biden, saying they support him and dismissing Reade’s allegation, including many who previously said women who accuse men of assault should be believed.
“I believe that everyone has a right to tell her story, to be listened to, and treated with respect,” she said. Asked whether there should be an independent probe into Reade’s allegation, she declined to answer directly.
