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Joe Biden sexual assault accuser Tara Reade calls on him to quit US presidential race

  • ‘You should not be running on character for the president of the United States,’ the former staffer said in an interview with Megyn Kelly
  • Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has denied the allegations, saying more and more inconsistencies keep emerging

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Tara Reade said former US vice-president Joe Biden sexually assaulted her while she worked in his Senate office in 1993. Biden has denied the allegations. Photo: AP
Former US Senate aide Tara Reade said on Thursday that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden should acknowledge her claim that he sexually assaulted her is true and quit the 2020 presidential race.
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“You and I were there, Joe Biden. Please step forward and be held accountable. You should not be running on character for the president of the United States,” Reade said during her first on-camera interview since Biden appeared on MSNBC last week and denied her accusation for the first time on television.

Reade’s interview was conducted by former network anchor Megyn Kelly. The video was posted on Kelly’s Twitter account.

Asked if Biden should end his presidential bid, Reade said: “I wish he would but he won’t. I wish he would. That’s how I feel emotionally.” She added that it was “a little late” for Biden to apologise to her.

Biden has denied Reade’s claim that when she worked for his Senate office in 1993, he pushed her against a wall in a Capitol Hill office building, put his hand up her skirt and sexually assaulted her with his fingers.

In recounting the alleged assault, Reade said Biden, using an expletive, told her he wanted to have sex with her.

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Biden responded to Reade’s comments on Thursday during an interview with a television station in Florida. “Nothing ever happened with Tara Reade. Believing women means taking a woman’s claim seriously when she steps forward and then vetting it, looking into it,” he told Spectrum Bay News 9 in Tampa. “But in the end, in every case, the truth is what matters. And in this case, the truth is the claims are flat out false.”

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