Tara Reade denies report quoting her saying she ‘chickened out’ of accusing Biden in 1993 of assault or harassment

Tara Reade, who has accused Joe Biden of assaulting her in 1993.
Tara Reade, who has accused Joe Biden of assaulting her in 1993.(Donald Thompson/AP Photo)

Tara Reade — who accuses Joe Biden of a sex assault in 1993 — tried Saturday to walk back an AP story in which she’s quoted saying she didn’t accuse Biden of assault or even harassment in a complaint she filed at the time.
Reade later tweeted that the AP story was “false,” without elaborating.
Reade also reportedly canceled an interview planned Sunday with Fox News host Chris Wallace.
The Associated Press story directly quoted Reade saying that in the supposed report — which has never surfaced — she claimed that Biden made her feel “uncomfortable.” She said she “chickened out” on making more substantive allegations.
The report Reade claims to have filed against Biden has never been found and she says she didn’t keep a copy. Biden aides insist they would remember her filing such a report.
The report Reade claims to have filed against Biden has never been found and she says she didn’t keep a copy. Biden aides insist they would remember her filing such a report.(Matt Rourke/Associated Press)
“I remember talking about him wanting me to serve drinks because he liked my legs and thought I was pretty and it made me uncomfortable,” Reade told the AP on Friday. “I know that I was too scared to write about the sexual assault.”
“The main word I used — and I know I didn’t use sexual harassment — I used ‘uncomfortable,'" Reade said. "And I remember ‘retaliation.’”
The report — supposedly filed with the U.S. Senate, when Biden was a Delaware senator — has never been found, and Reade says she didn’t keep a copy. Biden aides insist they would remember her filing such a report.
The supposed report had become more of an issue since Biden broke his silence Friday to emphatically deny Reade’s claim.
He urged investigators to search for the report, if it exists, in the Senate records or the National Archives. He declined to give permission for a search of his personal papers at the University of Delaware, which he said would not include such a report in any case.
Reade initially spoke about the Biden allegations and the report in an interview with the AP last year. The news organization declined to to publish the story then “because reporters were unable to corroborate her allegations, and aspects of her story contradicted other reporting."
“They have this counseling office or something," she told the AP last year. "I think I walked in there once, but then I chickened out.”

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