This month, former Vice President Joe Biden was hit with sexual assault allegations from a former staffer, Tara Reade.
While his campaign has issued a denial, the candidate himself has yet to personally address the subject. That may need to change as two women have gone on record about Reade’s allegation, including a former neighbor who said Reade shared details of the assault with her in the mid-1990s.
Reade was working as a staffer for Biden in 1993 when she claims the then-senator sexually assaulted her. While the alleged assault is decades-old, Reade revealed in an April 10 tweet that she has filed a sexual assault complaint with Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department.
“I have been smeared and called vile names by Biden supporters,” she declared in a subsequent post, and promised that she would “continue to speak out.”
Additional evidence emerges
Although the 27-year-old accusation initially appeared to be a case of he said/she said, additional evidence is emerging that appears to corroborate Reade’s version of events. A 1993 clip of CNN’s “Larry King Live” features a woman calling in who says that her daughter had “problems” while “working for a prominent senator,” The Intercept reported.
The woman does not give her name, but her city is given as San Luis Obispo, California, which is where Reade’s mother was living at the time. Reade says that the voice on the footage does in fact belong to her late mother.
Neighbor backs up Reade’s account
The woman said to be Reade’s mother didn’t mention sexual harassment or assault during the call, but other sources have. One of Reade’s former neighbors, Lynda LaCasse, told Business Insider that Reade told her in 1995 or 1996 about Biden putting “her up against a wall.”
“And he put his hand up her skirt, and he put his fingers inside her,” LaCasse continued. “She felt like she was assaulted, and she really didn’t feel there was anything she could do.”
“She didn’t ask me to [come forward],” LaCasse stressed. “I volunteered to do that just recently. If this was me, I would want somebody to stand up for me. It takes a lot of guts to do what she’s doing.” LaCasse apparently is not politically motivated — she told Business Insider that she is a “very strong Democrat” and is “for Biden, regardless.”
Coworker recalls hearing about harassment
Business Insider also spoke with Lorraine Sanchez, someone who Reade worked with after she had left Washington. Sanchez says that not only did Reade confide that she had been mistreated, but had also faced consequences for complaining about it.
“[Reade said] she had been sexually harassed by her former boss while she was in D.C.,” Sanchez said, adding, “and as a result of her voicing her concerns to her supervisors, she was let go, fired.”
This is a developing story.
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