Former Vice President Joe Biden appears to be all but assured of receiving the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination this summer. However, given the troubling allegations that he is now facing, one long-time political adviser is telling him to call it quits, according to Fox News.
Peter Dauo is a longtime political activist who advised former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in her own presidential bid. Yet in a series of tweets on Saturday, Dauo laid out the reasons why he feels that Biden needs to step aside.
“Credible rape allegations are disqualifying”
“I respect the will of the voters,” Dauo began, but added that “Credible rape accusations are disqualifying or we have NO moral standards.”
That was a reference to allegations made by Tara Reade, a woman who worked in Biden’s Senate office in the early 1990’s. According to Reade, Biden pushed her up against a wall before reaching under her skirt and penetrating her without her consent.
On April 10, Reade tweeted that she had filed police report in Washington, D.C. over the incident even though the statute of limitations had already run. “I filed a police report for safety reasons only.”
“I have been smeared and called vile names by Biden supporters. I was also accused of being called a Russian agent. I am not,” she added. “I will continue to speak out.”
“I remember talking about it”
On April 27, a former neighbor of Reade’s came forward to tell Business Insider that she recalls the alleged victim telling her about the assault a few years after it was said to have occurred, according to Mediaite.
“This happened, and I know it did because I remember talking about it,” Lynda LaCasse stated. “I remember her saying, here was this person that she was working for and she idolized him.”
“And he kind of put her up against a wall,” LaCasse claims Reade told her. “And he put his hand up her skirt and he put his fingers inside her. She felt like she was assaulted, and she really didn’t feel there was anything she could do.”
Business Insider also reported that Lorraine Sanchez, a former colleague of Reade “recalls [her] complaining at the time that her former boss in Washington, D.C. had sexually harassed her, and that she had been fired after raising concerns.”
Another piece of evidence to come to light recently is a 1993 clip from CNN’s Larry King Live. In it, a woman who Reade now attests was her late mother can be heard saying that her daughter had been mistreated by a senator for whom she worked.
Biden himself has yet to personally address the incident in question, although officials with his campaign have denied that any wrongdoing took place.
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