Skip to main content

Joe Biden set to address sex assault accusations Friday

Joe Biden set to address sex assault accusations Friday
In a coronavirus world, Biden seeks ways to close money gap with Trump
U.S. Democratic presidential hopeful, Joe Biden

Joe Biden will break his silence Friday about a former aide’s allegations that he sexually assaulted her in the 1990s, according to the broadcaster set to interview the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

Biden’s morning appearance on MSNBC comes as he faces mounting pressure, including from President Donald Trump, to address the allegations, and as top Democrats rushed to the party flagbearer’s defense.

“Tomorrow in a @Morning_Joe exclusive, former Vice President @JoeBiden (will) respond for the first time to the recent allegation of sexual assault,” the cable television channel’s public relations team said Thursday on Twitter.

Biden’s campaign has denied the claim that he assaulted a 29-year-old staff assistant who worked in his US Senate office.

But the 77-year-old White House hopeful has yet to personally respond to the bombshell accusation by Tara Reade, now 56.

Trump, who himself faced more than a dozen accusations of sexual harassment and assault before he became president, said he knew little about the claims against Biden, even as his re-election team and Republican campaign operations aggressively push the controversy.

“I think that he should respond,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

“It could be false accusations,” he added. “I know all about false accusations, I have been falsely charged numerous times.”

According to Reade, Biden assaulted her in 1993 in a hallway on Capitol Hill.

ALSO READ: Biden says he’ll keep US embassy in Jerusalem if elected

“He went down my skirt but then up inside it and he penetrated me with his fingers,” Reade said in a late March interview on the Katie Halper Show podcast.

Other women have accused Biden of touching or embracing them inappropriately in the past, and Reade’s initial claims were similar — and less severe than her most recent allegations.

The New York Times reported it interviewed Reade on multiple occasions, along with her friends and others who worked for Biden in the 1990s.

The paper said it uncovered no pattern of misconduct.

– Pelosi defends –

Biden has pledged to pick a woman as his running mate, and on Thursday he launched a committee to help him search for and vet a vice presidential candidate.

“Selecting a vice presidential candidate is one of the most important decisions in a presidential campaign and no one knows this more than Joe Biden,” campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement.

The committee co-chairs include congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who this week endorsed Biden for president, addressed the issue at her Thursday press conference, which focused on the coronavirus pandemic.

READ ALSO: Joe Biden under pressure to address sexual assault allegation

“There was never any record” about the assault, and “nobody ever came forward to say something about it apart from the principal involved” until 27 years later, she said.

Biden is “a person of great values” who has fought for women’s rights throughout his career, she said.

Biden, relegated to campaigning from home due to the coronavirus crisis, appeared on an Instagram live chat Thursday with soccer champion Megan Rapinoe, but the issue was not addressed.

Several women seen as candidates to be Biden’s running mate, including Senator Kamala Harris and former Georgia state lawmaker Stacey Abrams, have expressed support for Biden regarding the allegations.

“I know Joe Biden and I think he’s telling the truth and this did not happen,” Abrams told CNN Tuesday.

The Reade allegations present a thorny problem for Biden’s campaign.

Harris and Senator Amy Klobuchar, another potential running mate, played leading roles in opposing the 2018 confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court over unproven accusations of sexual assault.

Trump said Kavanaugh was “falsely charged” by Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Kavanaugh of assaulting her at a party in the early 1980s.

[AFP]

Vanguard News Nigeria.

The post Joe Biden set to address sex assault accusations Friday appeared first on Vanguard News.


by Rasheed Sobowale via Vanguard News https://ift.tt/35jHpq5 Best Known Member of the Cabinet Wikipedia
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

UPDATED: Nigeria’s coronavirus cases reach 1,728, fatalities 51

  By David Royal The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says 196 new cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) have been reported in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 1,728. NCDC also announced that seven more fatalities were recorded, bringing the total number of deaths to 51. The NCDC, in a tweet at about 11:55 p.m. on Wednesday, said the 196 new cases reported were; 87-Lagos, 24-Kano, 18-Gombe, 17-Kaduna, 16-FCT, 10-Katsina, 8-Sokoto, 7-Edo, 6-Borno, 1-Yobe, 1-Ebonyi, 1-Adamawa. The virus has spread to 34 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. Yobe, according to NCDC report, is the most recent state to record COVID-19 case in the country. According to the agency, Nigeria now has 1,370 active cases recorded as of 11:55 p.m. on April 29, while 307 infected persons have been treated and discharged, with 51 deaths recorded. READ ALSO: US says remdesivir shows ‘clear-cut’ effect in treating coronavirus “On the 29th of April 2020, 196 ...
Post a Comment
Read more

COVID-19: Seafarers to be paid for extended services — Folarin

By Godfrey Bivbere Otunba Kunle Folarin THE National Seafarers Welfare Board, NSWB, Nigeria, has said that seafarers who have their stay on board ships extended as a result of the Coronavirus, COVID-19, pandemic would receive wages due them for the extra days. Chairman of NSWB, Otunba Kunle Folarin, stated this while responding to the fears of some Nigerian seafarers on Maritime Television’s premium show tagged Live Conversations. READ ALSO: East Libya has expelled 1,400 refugees and migrants this year — UN Folarin expressed the readiness of the Board to provide assistance to Nigerian seafarers facing difficulties at this time, stressing further that seafarers who toil to keep the economic balance deserve to be paid. The NSWB chairman asked seafarers to report all attempts by their employers to short-change them or any other ill treatment on them to the Board, noting that such matters will be addressed decisively. He explained that seafarers have a right to escalate such ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mayhem: How we secured Surulere from hoodlums — Lagos youth leader

#EndSARS protesters A youth leader in Surulere, Lagos, Mr Adedeji Adeoti, has narrated how young people in the area secured the community from attack by hoodlums during the recent EndSARS protest. Adeoti told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Friday that the concerned youths had to safeguard the community because “it’s our heritage. “During the crises, we had to mobilise the youths to come out to protect the streets and its environs from the hoodlums, “We had to come out to safeguard our neighborhood from miscreants because our aged parents and loved ones are all at home and needed protection. “We had to mobilise youths in the neighborhood to chase away the hoodlums and miscreants who hijacked the peaceful protest,” said Adeoti, who’s President, Adelabu Youths Vanguard. READ ALSO: ENDSARS: Ogun Judicial Panel of Investigation receives 20 petitions in 2 weeks He urged the government to give the youth the chance to speak up and make demands for a better life and secu...
Post a Comment
Read more