The MK Interview: Tara Reade

tara thank you so much for being here we'll get to your accusations against joe biden in a minute but first i just want people to get a sense of who you are where are you from i was born in monterey california and i grew up on a farm in wisconsin lived in about 80 acres okay so for part of my childhood and lived also in athens georgia and then back to california so you go from the west coast to washington dc for a stint you work on capitol hill and then you wind up getting married and having a child right unfortunately that marriage took a dark turn can you tell us a little bit about that yeah i met my ex-husband actually during the time i was living in washington dc when i was working for joe biden the joy of that was my child and i and my daughter and wonderful but the heartbreak was that he was quite abusive and had a history and we were put in a program that required me to and my daughter to leave the area and have a sealed name change and live in a safe house it was a very serious domestic violence situation it was law enforcement coordinated with um with women's shelters and then also his parental rates were terminated and so i raised my daughter by myself so you get a name change you get a social security number change you wind up moving to the pacific northwest and then you decide to go to law school how did you pay for that i took out a lot of loans i'm still in debt very deeply in debt uh so you spent basically most of your career at that point helping domestic violence survivors i'm told uh work for some animal rights organizations and the like correct and is that what you were doing up until recently correct um off and on yeah okay how old is your daughter now she's 25 okay so let's go back to 1992. you get a job working for then senator joe biden as what a staff assistant you're overseeing the interns correct so i was very excited to um be on the hill i was very excited to work for joe biden he's someone i looked up to so you're on capitol hill you're how old at this point i'm 28. and you make some friends including a woman who i'm just going to call karen for the purposes of this interview is working in ted kennedy's office correct okay and karen becomes pretty relevant right in a short amount of time um then at some point in your eight month stint working for biden you claim you were sexually harassed and i'm making a distinction here between harassment and assault we'll get to the alleged assault in a minute you claim sexual harassment began how so i would see him in hallways or whatever he would always just greet me put his hands on me or put his hands on my shoulder and rub you know my neck sometimes it was just a bit odd um and i'd never had an employer do that did you ever see him behave inappropriately with someone other than you not really he was he would sometimes put his hands on people that i thought it was just unusual that he would just move people instead of saying excuse me i would see that once in a while um but he seemed to at meetings it would be he would like put his hand not necessarily look at me but he would just put his hand on my shoulder and then i would feel his finger underneath my hair like on my neck and stroking your neck yeah just a little with his finger and it just would make me freeze up because i'm i'm a demonstrative person but he was my boss and quite a bit older than me and i just was surprised by that what did you take from that did you think he was after something at the time i just was so kind of surprised by it and then um i walked in i was called in actually to the office by marianne baker to her office and there was a discussion going on about me marion baker was joe biden's assistant for 30 years she's in her 70s now right okay um and but she was your boss correct okay so she was the person you're that you reported to and what happened you walked into her office they were having a discussion about having me serve drinks at a fundraising event and an aide was arguing that to me saying that you know i didn't have to do that that wasn't my job that because the senator had said he liked my legs and thought i was pretty i didn't have to do this who told you that um it was a it was a senate aide that it heard biden wanted you because he liked your legs correct and i was called into the office because they wanted to discuss it with me okay and then i had one one of my hallway meetings with marianne baker when she talked to me about it and she just said you know if you want to get along here you need to keep your head down and do what you're told if you want to keep you know working here basically and she said you need to button up your blouses you need to have longer skirts and you need to not look so sexy and noticeable and you need to you know change how you're dressing were you wearing short skirts and look up blouses no i was wearing like you know what you would get at express like just normal like skirts back then in the 90s we wore a lot of you know pastelli kind of things i wore heels i mean i did dress so what do you think that was about i think looking back on it it was almost like damage control it's like they were coming out aggressively at me because of the drinks thing i think but i don't know did you change the way that you dressed no you know i it's a strange ass that no one's asked me that but at the same time i was talking to my mother who is a very strong feminist and was always ahead of her time and she explained to me that that was probably retaliation for what i was not you know serving the drinks and your mom says this is inappropriate what was your mom's name jeanette so jeanette says you got to do something about this did you no i didn't she was she said you need to at least document it and i said mom this isn't the kind of place you do that and i also talked to my friend um karen so you told her what was happening in the office in real time yes we were discussing it after they had the discussion with you about your dress do you feel there was any other retaliation it just became very icy and my friend karen noticed it when she would like if we would go to lunch or something when she'd call for me there was like this iciness so there comes a day at some point that spring spring of 1993 cracked where you say senator biden and you had an experience in a hallway in one of the capitol buildings can you describe what happened that day yes i was this was during that time where i was kind of frozen out so i was kind of surprised but she but marianne came rushing in with this bag like a duffel bag or gym bag she called it and said you know hurry the senator's already on his way um just follow him and try to catch him before the capitol and give him this he wants his bag i remember going down the russell building floors and so i don't know if i was in the first floor of the or the basement but there's corridors that lead to the capitol and that kind of thing and i was trying to catch up with him and i've been on a weekday yes and i remember like my heels like my legs hurting a little and like you know there was just from walking really fast i remember things like that um and then i saw him at a distance he was talking to someone and they they walked away the other direction and then he greeted me he remembered my name and then i said you know here you go senator i handed him the bag and it happened very quickly i remember i remember being pushed up against the wall and thinking the first thought i had was where's the bag which is an absurd thought but that's what i thought was where's the bag yeah because i was handing it to him and um he had his hands um under underneath my clothes and um it was it happened all at once so he had one hand underneath my shirt and the other hand um i had a skirt on and he like went down my skirt and then went up and i remember i was up almost on my tippy toes and when he went inside the skirt he was talking to me at the same time and he was leaning into me and i pulled this way away from his head i remember and so he was kissing my neck area and he whispered did i want to go somewhere else and a low voice he said some other things i can't remember everything he said um but he said something vulgar and i asked what he he said i want to you and he said it low and i was pushing away and i remember my knee hurting because our knees he he had opened my legs with his knee and our knees caps clashed so i felt like the sharp pain his fingers were inside of my private area my vagina and it it wasn't there was no small talk there was no like precept there was it was just sudden and it was happening like that and he um was saying that to me saying those things to me and i was pulling away and then he pulled back immediately when he could see i wasn't complying i was obviously just tensed up and frozen and not kissing him back and i'm not going with him and he pulled back and he looked at me and he said come on man i heard you liked me and when he said that it was either i heard or i thought but i remember hearing heard when he said that i immediately started thinking what i did like how i brought this on like did i say something to somebody did i give an impression did i i was just my mind was racing and in that moment i knew this was really bad i knew i was it was more than just like the assault it was really bad he was then angry right and i could feel it wasn't like yelling angry but like that hostility build and he pulled back and he was just looking at me directly and he said he pointed his finger at me and he said you're nothing to me you're nothing and i i think i i think that's the hardest thing and i know people talk about the assault but his words those words stayed with me my whole life and as i've been trying to tell my story and kind of been torn apart trying to tell it those words come back and it's like it was it was not it was cruel so when he saw me obviously start to get upset by what he said he took me by the shoulders and he just kind of shook me almost like you know and said you know you're okay you're all right had you said anything to him i wanted to say stop and i thought it i don't know if i said it but sometimes you know when i i've had a couple bad dreams or a few bad dreams about it i wake up yelling that i wake up yelling stop and then he um he didn't look at me again he picked up the gym bag he turned around and he walked away and he never looked back it sounds like it happened in an instant i would say under three minutes it was quick within moments of seeing you right like there was no like he'd never like engage me he never engaged me in conversation or asked me things he just he just had me up and and was was kissing me and then saying that when you say that he went down the skirt and then back up what is that like did he go did he enter the skirt from the top of the skirt no um on the outside he came into the skirt from the bottom of the skirt right and we were you wearing underwear um i i was wearing lingerie underwear okay and he pushed it to the side he there was no block yeah there was no reason yeah he was able to do what he wanted to do and i don't mean to get too graphic that's okay but are you saying that they were crotchless when you say that it was a lingerie like can i just be clear on did you push the underwear to the side or was that not an issue that was not an issue why because they were just lingerie panties like and i was going to meet my boyfriend later so yeah so that means there wasn't much to them right you know some people are going to hear this story and they're going to say you're telling me a u.s senator in the middle of the day in a senate office building committed a sexual assault right there yeah how can people believe that i don't really care if people believe it or not i've had to live with it and it's just one of those things that's impacted and shattered my life it changed everything about my life in that moment i knew how angry he was and i remember thinking like taking it on myself like thinking i put him in a bad position like maybe he thought i wanted to be with him many people look at him and they say you know joe biden is a jovial kind warm guy and he couldn't possibly be capable of that level of callousness to those people what do you say he is i'll never forget the calling me nothing and the way he pointed his finger at me the sternness and then you know when he said you're okay you're okay it's like he just walked away so when you got out of the senate building who what did you do next did you tell anybody i i remember just trying to get home like i remember i had sitting on those stairs thinking i just had to get my legs to work so i could go back and get my purse and then i remember being home and then i was curled up like in fetal position practically talking to my mom was she the first person you told i called her you told her all the detail it took her a while to get it out of me because i kept i was embarrassed about the underwear i was wearing she described it as as sexual assault i mean she she said this is wrong and you need to go the police and she was begging me to go to the police she cried and yelled at me and then she when she was yelling at me it really stressed me out um did you consider it did you consider going to the cops i did not because it was the capitol police and i just said mom you don't do that here did you tell anybody other than your mom and i told karen um and she um i called her and then we finally got to talk and i just knew that something was going to change incrementally like forever right so i took a shower i remember that and i remember i remember trying to get like that smell you know just kept washing and washing you feel traumatized i felt scared i what i could say is i don't know if it was trauma but i felt frightened like and it wasn't just about this what happened it was like it was my job tied up with it did there come a time when you actually did complain about what had been going on in that office to anyone yes right before the assault i had gone to marianne baker and we had had our hallway meetings and i was about you know not serving the drinks and i started to tell her i was uncomfortable and she did not want to hear that um right after the assault i wanted to tell her about the assault so i we were in the hallway i was trying to tell her i was trying to say something happened and before i could really get any words out she put her hand up and she said i don't want to hear this there was nothing that would suggest to her you had been sexually assaulted by him no the i started to say something happened and she didn't let me get further than that all the complaining you did about the office environment happened prior to the alleged assault except for the conversation you claim you had with marianne yes in the hallway where you felt shut down but then there was a point at which you decided to file a written complaint correct was that after the alleged assault right yes so i decided to seek out some help and they had something called like it was senate personnel we called it loosely but it was like a office of you know i don't even know of for employees like you go where you get your ids things like that and but you go and you fill out a form and you start a process so i did an intake form i don't recall what i put on the intake when you walk into the office do you see another human behind the window like almost like you know behind if you were to go to a doctor's office they hand you a clipboard so they handed you a clipboard and it had a piece of paper on there but what did you say i said i filled it out with my information and then said i described the sexual harassment in terms of that being asked to be served the drinks and being uncomfortable i doubt i used the word sexual harassment i did not talk about the sexual assault at all i only talked about the retaliation as well like i because at that point i was really afraid of losing my position did you have the chance to copy the form no and we didn't have cell phones back then like now i would have taken a picture with my phone but some people hit you for this saying you kept virtually every record from your 92 93 stint in biden's office why would you not keep the one form that alleged harassment or retaliation actually i didn't i didn't keep very much from that time i don't even have pictures really from that time i think i just have a few things did you even think to get a copy or try to get a copy i thought they were going to call me for an appointment so i was just kind i just thought they would be i didn't know i was going to be fired at that time so i just thought i would be imminently coming into the office how long thereafter were you fired i would say it was in within a month i was stripped of my duty so i don't know if they knew about the form but i suspect that it got around um but i don't know so there was never a call uh in response to your form you claimed that you complained to three people in joe biden's office at the time about the harassment not the assault they have all vehemently denied it marianne baker your direct report says such a complaint quote would have left a searing impression on me as a woman professional and as a manager it didn't happen ted kaufman says she did not come to me if she had i would have remembered her a similar denial from dennis toner these are pretty emphatic your reaction well you have to look at the source i mean they're still working with biden so they're not just biden stoppers or former they're with them except i think marianne baker's now retired but she was with him their job was to cover what he did there are people that have enabled and allowed his behavior to continue and they know who they are and in a way they're complicit one of the witnesses who has come forward to support your story is karen this person you met in ted kennedy's office right um karen is a working professional um she does not wish to be on the record uh by by name um but she has spoken to my producer in this interview rich mchugh an investigative reporter and producer and she's she has said to him specifically that your story has never varied that you told her this story at the time it happened why do you think karen is afraid to come forward with her real name and say this publicly because she's you know she owns a business and i mean she has you know a family you see what's happening to me my friends and family are being harassed and attacked and discredited and dragged through the mud there's another woman who says you told her this story about two years after it happened yes her name is linda lacrosse she's a lifelong democrat she says she's a biden supporter and is going to vote for joe biden this november yeah but she said uh this happened and i know it did because i remember talking about it people need to believe tara what's happened to her since she came out and identified herself as somebody who is a corroborating witness of yours she said it's been hard on her because she's been getting harassing calls people have been saying really terrible things about her on social media and dragging some of her personal life onto personal finances just all kinds of things smeared you voted for joe biden in 2008 and 2012. and i think a lot of people look at that and say how could you vote for the man who sexually assaulted you because i wasn't voting for him i was voting for obama i mean i was really hopeful and happy that obama became president and joe biden happened to be on the ticket my daughter was young there was no way i was going to come forward and at those times there was really no mechanism and i think when people say why don't you just tell your story well it's not that easy when i when i tried to bring forth my story this year alone it took months for a news outlet to really look at it and then months more for them to investigate it and vet it and look into it and then they decide they decide when they print it i have no control over that but as recently as 2017 you were praising joe biden publicly right and i think that has a lot of people scratching their heads right there's a on multiple occasions you retweeted or you liked um online praise for joe biden and his work combating sexual assault there was a compliment you tweeted about him saying my old boss speaks truth listen i mean it is true that women do sometimes praise men who have sexually harassed or abused them but why would you publicly praise joe biden for actions on sexual assault when you claim that's what he did to you well one thing during that time i i'm an expert witness on domestic violence issues as you know so i that was like an account that was you know part of that awareness of domestic violence and and other violent acts um i've always been conflicted about joe biden i didn't want to talk badly about him and i wasn't ready to tell my history with joe biden at that point at all and nora had any idea of going to the press about it at that point it wasn't until 2019 when i saw lucy flores come forward and the way the media treated her politician from the state of uh nevada correct who had come out and made an allegation about joe biden touching her her inappropriately at a campaign event she she said i felt i wanted to come forward so i talked to my friend karen and karen actually had said have you noticed they said no employees had come forward and i said i know you know and i thought about it but karen was really against me ever coming forward period in public she just said the blowback will be so bad you it just will be terrible and i'm like well this is a different time there's a metoo movement like maybe this is the time for me to really i feel a bit hypocritical here i am an advocate for other people but i'm not i'm hiding this secret i'm not telling what happened to me you give an interview to your local paper right and you don't tell the full story you only tell about the alleged harassment and you don't mention the alleged assault why not the first question that was asked of me was well it wasn't sexual was it and that's all it took i was so lacking in courage and it'd be the first time i've been telling the story i just i it kind of took my breath and i thought okay i can't really talk about what happened and then as soon as the local article came out talking about the harassment um within hours before it even hit the paper i was being called a russian agent right we'll get to vladimir putin in a minute but how soon after speaking to that reporter in april of 19 did you begin reconsidering and thinking about telling the full story almost immediately i think it was probably later in the summer that i started reaching out back to you know a couple of reporters i had been speaking with and they did not respond and so then i started reaching out to politicians and i really started in the fall very actively even tweeting openly like there's something more there's something more and really putting it out there but not receiving a response let me back up before we sure um so when you spoke out in april of 19 about the alleged harassment but not assault you did something interesting in an interview you gave to the washington post uh there's a quote from you that is this is what i want to emphasize it's not him it's the people around him who keep covering for him for instance he should have known what was happening to me looking back now that's my criticism maybe he could have been a little bit more in touch with his own staff a little more in touch with his own staff i mean this is the guy who allegedly sexually assaulted you and you seem to be trying to cover him in this discussion with the washington post do they have the quote right and why why would you do that i'm pretty sure that's in response to the question about specifically the retaliation so i was being retired i was talking about they were asking me if joe biden fired me and i said no it was ted kaufman i don't even know if joe biden knew i was fired um because he wasn't in touch what i meant by that was he wasn't in touch with the day-to-day of staff like that's not something he did you're not blaming him and weren't blaming him for the retaliation you suffered yeah i wasn't sure he even knew let's talk about some of the backlash you got when you came out in april of 2019 including being accused of being a russian agent your comments on vladimir putin are a little out there right so just i want to give you the chance to explain what that's about um you've said he's a genius with athletic prowess that's intoxicating he has an alluring combination of strength with gentleness his sensuous image projects his love for life the embodiment of grace while facing adversity uh and that like most women across the world you like president putin a lot shirt on or off well that was a joke but um that was humorous meant to be humorous but i'm pretty enamored with him but i i think that that what i want to say about that is if you read all of the posts there a lot about russia and the anti-russia sentiment right now that we have and i don't like xenophobia um you know and i i was writing a russian novel that was part of the writing group that i mentioned earlier and we were doing creative writing creative posts and i was in the middle of studying about russia kind of immersing myself in that the truth of the matter is you know i've never been to russia i don't know what it's like to live there or the human rights violations that you know he is accused of and what i would say now is that i don't appreciate his views about for instance domestic violence um programs like there's not a lot of support for women from my understanding i've had a change on him yeah but all of that aside has nothing to do with what happened in 1993 or where joe biden had his hands where they weren't supposed to be eventually you do decide to tell the full story and you put that decision someplace in the summer of 2019. um you tried to go to the press you didn't get any nobody would take the story how many publications would you say you went to oh gosh i don't know i went to quite a few um because they would blow you off um there was just no answer yeah like i went to i think the guardian probably there was i reached out to npr to the new yorker i mainly stayed with like pbs npr new york times those kinds of yeah why do you think they were blowing you off i don't know if they were blowing me off but i don't but i think people need to understand when they're trying to tell a story it's not that easy i think you know you go to the tip lines or you go if you're not a known citizen or a known person you don't necessarily get a platform to come forward was this at all politically motivated because that's what people think you know they think you were a marianne williamson supporter you're a bernie supporter this is about politics no actually it's not it well i think everything's political like maybe i'll take that back everything's political right but this is deeper than that this is about um watching the person that assaulted me be elevated to the highest office in the land he's running on a platform of character and i just i found that gross i know what he's like i experienced what he was like and i wanted people to know but if you brought it to for example the elizabeth warren campaign right to try to get them to do something with it um and the kamala harris campaign i did isn't that inherently political i mean doesn't that suggest in fact this is all political i tried to reach out to them yes i did i tried to reach out to them well camilla harris is my representative so i tried to reach out to her in particular for help like i wanted to get a safe place to tell what happened and i didn't get a response so i kept again trying to get it out there um i think that many things can be true at once as what you know we all know right he is presented as a champion of women's rights and yet i know personally and i know seven other women that did not experience him that way one of the reasons people have chosen to dismiss you some people have chosen to dismiss your allegation is because there was a march third tweet that i want to ask you about okay so the intercepts ryan grimm tweeted out quote a head-to-head biden v sanders contest will force voters to take a close look at biden again that went very badly for him last time and you responded at 10 33 pm on march 3rd 2020 yup timing wait for it tick-tock it sounds political and it sounds like you were excited to drop this bomb that was in response to me getting finally i thought an attorney from from times up to finally bring something forward and bring my story forward in a safe way so that's why i wrote it tick tock was a rough time time's up yeah i were you excited because it sounds anticipatory you're building the anticipation and the suspense people have used that as a reason to say she's not credible um i think that they'll use anything to say that i'm not credible so i won't address it in that way what i will say is that i was very very vocal on twitter about trying to get the story forward can we talk about the the double standard in you know that some believe uh exists in the way you've been treated versus the way some other metoo complainants have been treated yeah um some of those who touted the we must believe all women uh line the most during for example the kavanaugh hearings for the supreme court certainly seem to have changed their tune when it comes to you nancy pelosi is one of them senator kirsten gillibrand of new york alyssa milano how did that feel it makes me upset it makes me angry because those were people that i respected some of which i voted for or worked with you know in some capacity and you know when i was on the hill like in a remote way they were there i was i voted for some people um that said this for instance i supported elizabeth warren who basically said she believed joe biden and just dismissed me what do you want to say to people like that who are looking into the camera right now saying i don't believe her i support him i want to say you don't have to discredit me or not believe me to vote for joe biden i even have friends and family that are still voting for joe biden because they that's what they're doing why wouldn't you ask me ask me what happened ask me my experience and then if you choose to not believe me that's fine and i don't really care deep down if they believe me or not it i know what happened to me and i'll move forward but i want other survivors to know that that they can come forward and when they see this sort of onslaught the sort of partisanship it's it's very discouraging so so we can come forward unless it's a democrat is that the message we're sending you've been an active democrat your whole life yeah are you still i'm well i don't know if they've noticed but i've i'm leaving the democratic party um and i won't be part of any um i won't be a republican it's just not my political belief system i've been pretty much a progressive all my life and so it's been it's been i feel politically homeless do you believe we should believe all women i believe in the survivors that have come forward like blasey ford and the other ones that have come forward i i do stand with them i think that there needs to be a conversation rather than a hashtag are you in favor of the conversation i mean does joe biden get due process does he get the chance to vet these claims and defend himself is that okay i think he's been doing that right he's had a chance for more platforms than i have let's talk about what he said because he went on tv last friday yeah and said first of all it never happened period end of report this did not happen he did say that in his view accusers should start off with the presumption that they're telling the truth do you think he's afforded you that presumption no i mean that's i mean it's been stunning actually how the some of his surrogates with the blue checks you know that our historians have been saying really horrible things about me and to me on social media um he has it himself but there's a measure of hypocrisy with the campaign saying it's safe it's not been safe you know all my social media has been hacked all my personal information has been dragged through every person that maybe has a you know gripe against me an ex-boyfriend or an ex-landlord or whatever it is has been able to have a platform rather than me um talking about things that have nothing to do with 1993 like even the whole thing with being called a russian agent that in particular that incites people people actually i got a death threat from that because they thought i was being a traitor to america and i mean these are serious things like and his campaign um is you know taking this position that they want all women to be able to speak safely i have not experienced that where does the line get drawn though right because you know he has to have the opportunity to question your story of course he's going to come out and say it isn't true and these are the reasons i don't believe it's true and you shouldn't believe it's true like any man accused or woman for that matter has the right to do that right correct so where are people going wrong in the coverage of this story i think one thing that was notable was it took him a long time to respond didn't it biden correct like how how long did it take over a month for him to publicly respond right exactly so it took over a month and meanwhile his campaign manager kept saying that the media had to investigate it and and to me you know being a past victim advocate for domestic violence i thought that was appalling that's like calling the mob to like tear apart somebody and i really and then they did and have you had any representation during this time no no you got rejected by time's up have you had a pr person no no have you had a lawyer no so it's just you just me kind of stumbling around trying to tell my story if he's watching this what do you want to say to him i want to say you and i were there joe biden please step forward and be held accountable and if you feel that you can address this in a real way then you know and i know that you should step down you're not you're not you should not be running on character for the president of the united states you want him to withdraw i wish he would but he won't but i wish he would that's how i feel emotionally do you want an apology i think it's a little late that was should have happened in 1993. now he says um he's calling on the national archives to release whatever documents that may have come from the senate personnel offices while you were there in search of this alleged complaint they say they don't have them um some are saying he should release his senate files that are being kept at the university of delaware he says he's not going to do that he was asked why not just have somebody go over there and do a search only for any document that mentions tara reid or sexual harassment he won't do it your reaction to that i think that says it all and i think once we get the document we'll we'll see what it says what if we don't get the document what does that tell us again that says it all i think that his reluctance is is speaking volumes if i can just go back for one second to blasey ford yes because we mentioned her and we're talking about believe all women um some of those who supported her but now have found a reason not to support you say well she was under oath would you go under oath absolutely they say well she subjected herself to cross-examination would you do that absolutely they also point out that she took a polygraph controlled by someone on her team is that something you want to do i'm not a criminal joe biden should take the holograph what i would say is that they're not admissible into court one two blasey ford took one is that true i believe that's what i understand but what kind of precedence does that set for survivors of violence does that mean we're presumed guilty and we all have to take polygraphs so i'm just putting it out there so i will take one if joe biden takes one but i'm not a criminal president trump has been accused by over 12 women of sexual assault or harassment or worse and i think that gets to the heart of it a lot of democrats are mad they're mad at you for they see it as an attempt to tar their guy the one guy who could bring down a man they loathe and they kind of just wish you would go away to those people what do you say i say again you don't have to discredit me or not believe me to vote for joe biden voting is a very personal thing and i'm not here to influence the national election and i don't want to be i do not want to help donald trump win i do not want to help joe biden win obviously he's the person that hurt me there's a there's an op-ed in the new york times today by linda hirschman who says i believe tara reid and i'm still going to vote for joe biden and i know it means i have to sell out tara reid but i just think trump's worse is essentially her position more artfully stated than that um can you understand that i think that says more about our culture and our society right now than it says about what's me right i mean this is the highest office of the land so do we want someone who thinks of women as objects who thinks that they can just take what they want in that moment for their pleasure and that's it and i guess that's the question on the subject of others coming forward some people have said if a guy is going to be this brazen in a in a sexual assault case doing this to a woman who works for him in the middle of a senate office building in the middle of the day in the middle of a corridor he's a sitting u.s senator there would be others that they can't believe tara reid because there's no one else making an allegation this serious what do you say to them i say i think i'm a poster child as to why women wouldn't come forward aren't i if you've been watching any of the social media or the news and seeing how i've been attacked basically on on everything about me um it's it's pretty obvious that if you did have you know a story to come forward with about joe biden it would be pretty daunting wouldn't it what is the end game here you know a lot of people think ah she's just disappointed bernie didn't get it she's trying to make something up to go after biden and even if it's true like what's the end game she wants trump what is the end game for you here my end game is that is basically telling my story in a dignified way not be torn apart and it's being able to move on with my life and heal how has this whole thing affected you it's been freeing it's actually i can't describe it but even even all the smears it's just like okay bring everything out like fine talk terrible things about me say i you know like my bankruptcy was posted and i want people to know don't be ashamed if you're poor like don't be ashamed if your life is messy that's ridiculous you should be able to talk about your life we all have problems and no one's perfect it took me a long time to come forward because of you know things that were happening in my life but from survivors they always have this feeling like they have to be perfect or they have to have you know and i'm not perfect and and it's all out there like everything about me and in a way it's just set me free thank you so much for being here thank you thank you for having me

Channel: Megyn Kelly

Views: 1,244,892

Rating: 4.5427146 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: 5HeZiKvOA0o

Length: 42min 6sec (2526 seconds)

Published: Fri May 08 2020

Reddit Comments

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[u/amansname]

the reason the Tara Reade allegation feels so real and concerning to me is like... it seems like his public behavior, where he sniffs and hugs and strokes and massages and coddles women? That to me seems like every dude ever who is “a feminist because he has a sister” not because women are people. He only sees women as their emotional relationship to him. He doesn’t see women as competent equals. If you greet every man in a meeting with a firm handshake and the only woman in a meeting with a hug... you don’t see her as equal you see her as an emotional creature you have to protect and treat differently.

Tara reade said she was asked to make coffee and act as a cocktail waitress. She said she was uncomfortable with being treated differently and didn’t like being petted and hugged like a pony at the petting zoo.

To me that says even more about Biden than whether or not he “thought she wanted” to be fingered spontaneously in a hallway.

He doesn’t see women as people. And no this isn’t “well times have changed and he feels differently now.” The man is in so many recent videos fighting with protestors derisively. Trying to knuckle up with people about his gun record. Basically shrugging off young women from the Sunrise movement, as naive little ants who don’t matter. Not to mention video after video of him petting and groping little girls and massaging women’s shoulders and it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I have been around these men who can’t seem to fathom professional relationships with women, they don’t seem to grasp the concept of “if you wouldn’t do it to your male colleague then don’t do it/ask it of your female colleague” because it’s not like they were being mean! They don’t see how different treatment = discrimination.

I’m just cringing at the thought of him trying to hug Angela merkel and then turning to her male assistant with a firm handshake. God dammit I wish Biden would just have a change of heart and go retire he is from the wrong era. He is not the man we need right now.

[u/Lydia9913]

As someone who has went through something similar to this (my abuser is in prison) and the fact no one believes her is awful.

[u/x_abyss]

I understand that this subreddit is frequented by supporters of the Democratic establishment, which might have strong bias towards Biden. But I urge you to watch the interview with an open mind. Because I think Megyn asked critical questions relevant to corroborating her story.

Here's a list of evidence that substantiates Tara's claims.

1. She told her mother, brother and her friend in the nineties.

2. Her mother called Larry King Live in 1993 seeking advice on her daughter's behalf.

3. Tara's ex-neighbor and her former colleague went on record, saying that Reade told them about her sexual assault. Here's a video of Lynda LaCasse, the neighbor, first televised interview on Democracy Now!

4. A court document from Tara's divorce proceedings in 1996 confirmed that she was harassed in Biden's office, and she was traumatized by her experience.

On the other hand, Biden is known to lie unabashedly.

1. He blatantly plagiarized his speech and lied about his academic records

2. He lied about participating in the civil rights movement.

3. He lied about advocating for cuts in social security, Medicare and Medicaid in his last debate.

4. He lied about his role in the Iraq War. Here's a short documentary and his response during his interview before Super Tuesday.

This isn't meant to persuade your minds into rebuking Biden but understand that Tara Reade has a credible allegation and Biden has a well documented history of lying.

[u/paxweasley]

I’ll take your word for it. This would be far too triggering for me to watch. There’s no reason for her to subject herself to this if it wasn’t true. I believe her. I’m struggling so much with what to do in November. How can I not vote for the option that isn’t trump? I work with undocumented immigrants, we have had crying children age 3 whose parents didn’t come pick them up because they were kidnapped by ICE. We’ve had the most heart wrenching stories you can imagine. How can I not vote against him?

But how can I vote for joe Biden? I don’t know how I’m going to look myself in the mirror either way. I’ve been raped. I’ve been sexually harassed. I know how it feels. How can I possibly vote for someone I truly believe to be a rapist? God it makes me sick. I’m hoping for a miracle, any miracle, that would allow me to not have to make this decision. Anything.

And being in a solidly blue state doesn’t help either, if everyone thinks how I am, Biden could lose “sure bet” states too, like McGovern did. I thought last election was an upsetting one to be a survivor during. This is worse. I’m heartbroken.

[u/dankfor20]

This type of stuff will get me too unsub here. Is this Pro AOC sub or an anti-Biden sub. Getting ridiculous at this point. I’ll say she seems credible but is this the place for this? No

[u/PickinOutAThermos4u]

Trump: "Hey Joe, looks like you got a rape allegation there... #MeToo."

C'mon DNC. I know you choke on Bernie, but Joe isn't going to cut it. Time to bring in the reliever.

[u/[deleted]]

[removed]

[u/[deleted]]

something about her timeline for coming out of the shadows is bullshit to me. So she waited until all 20 of the Democrats dropped out before she exposed Biden? Why the hell didn’t she push this while Bernie was still in the damn race? To me, that looks suspicious, and frankly I don’t trust anyone who would wait 30 years to out Biden, and chooses now of all moments to do it. Also I hate Biden, but still think this whole scenario is suspicious as hell. To me it reeks of politics more than an actual assault. I’m not a rape apologist , but this is just too suspicious to me to bust out the pitchforks yet.