Biden camp says sexual assault accusation 'false,' calls on press to investigate

The campaign for Democratic presidential front-runner and former Vice President Joe Biden has reacted to a recently-emerged sexual assault allegation against the candidate, calling the claim "false" and urging the press to investigate.

What are the details?

In an interview with journalist Katie Halper that was released Wednesday, Tara Reade, a former staff assistant to Biden during his time as a U.S. Senator, accused the Democratic candidate of sexually assaulting her in 1993. Reade shared graphic details about what Biden allegedly did to her, and the way he reacted after the incident.

Mr. Biden has not addressed the allegation from Ms. Reade, but his campaign issued a statement regarding her accusation on Friday.

Kate Bedingfield, deputy campaign manager and communications director for the Biden campaign told Fox News, "Women have a right to tell their story, and reporters have an obligation to rigorously vet those claims. We encourage them to do so, because these accusations are false."

The campaign also provided a statement from Marianne Baker, who served as Mr. Biden's executive assistant for 20 years, including during the time of the alleged incident with Ms. Reade.

"In all my years working for Senator Biden, I never once witnessed, or heard of, or received, any reports of inappropriate conduct, period — not from Ms. Reade, not from anyone," Baker said, adding, "these clearly false allegations are in complete contradiction to both the inner workings of our Senate office and to the man I know and worked so closely with for almost two decades."

Ms. Reade says she has been trying to tell her story about Biden sexually assaulting her ever since it happened. According to The Intercept, she was turned down by the Times's Up Legal Defense Fund earlier this year when she asked for guidance on how to tell her story.

Reade joined a number of women last year who came forward accusing Biden of inappropriate touching. Fox News reported, "But this week, Reade told a far more graphic account, with different and more serious details, raising the allegation to the level of sexual assault."

Anything else?

While Biden himself has not yet responded to Reade's claim, he has said in the past that all women should be believed when they come forward to reveal that they have been harassed or assaulted, TheBlaze's Phil Shiver pointed out Friday.

"For a woman to come forward in the glaring lights of focus, nationally, you've got to start off with the presumption that at least the essence of what she's talking about is real," Biden told The Washington Post in 2018, when uncorroborated claims were made against now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.