With Kamala Harris named Joe Biden’s vice presidential pick, President Trump’s team is willing to throw just about any attack at the wall to see what will stick. That includes resurfacing Tara Reade’s allegations that Biden sexually harassed and assaulted her in 1993 when she worked in his office as a staff assistant.
It echoes a campaign tactic Trump used in 2016 against Hillary Clinton. But this time, the campaign is not finding the accuser to be a willing participant in political attacks.
The Trump campaign hopes to seize on the appearance of hypocrisy from Harris, a California senator tapped for Biden’s ticket on Tuesday. The Trump campaign is noting the difference in comments Harris made over a year ago about allegations of unwanted and uncomfortable touching from Biden compared to those she more recently said about Reade’s allegations when the two were initially competing for the party’s presidential nomination.
“The only standards Kamala Harris has are double standards, especially when it comes to the accusations against Joe Biden. Harris smeared Judge Kavanaugh with completely uncorroborated allegations but has decided to conveniently ignore Tara Reade’s allegations against Joe Biden, despite existing evidence,” Trump campaign deputy national press secretary Samantha Zager told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday. “It’s amazing what Harris will set aside for the chance to be vice president.”
Harris gained notoriety in the summer of 2018 for grilling now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on a decadesold allegation of sexual misconduct from Christine Blasey Ford. When Biden faced a slew of women coming forward and accusing him of unwanted touching just before he announced his presidential candidacy in April of last year, Harris praised the women for speaking out and hesitated in encouraging Biden to run for president.
“I believe them, and I respect them being able to tell their story and having the courage to do it,” Harris said at the time, adding that Biden would “have to make [the decision to run for president] himself. I wouldn’t tell him what to do.”
This year, months after Harris dropped out of the presidential race and when it was clear that Biden would be the party’s presidential nominee, she weighed in on the allegations from Reade, which Biden and others involved in allegations have repeatedly denied.
“Listen, this woman has a right to tell her story, and I believe that, and I believe Joe Biden believes that, too,” Harris said in April. “She has a right to tell her story, and she shouldn’t face any repercussions for that, but the Joe Biden I know is somebody that really has fought for women and empowerment of women and women’s equality and rights.”
Reade has shared a similar criticism of Harris for being hypocritical, this week calling on journalists to demand a clearer answer from Harris about what she thinks about her allegations against Biden.
But she doesn’t appreciate the Trump campaign using her as a pawn to boost the president’s reelection prospects.
“If there’s a sincere belief in wanting to examine my history of Joe Biden, I welcome that,” Reade told the Washington Examiner. “However, I do not welcome the sexual harassment and sexual assault being weaponized and being used as a political football.”
She believes Blasey Ford’s allegations against Kavanaugh, and she noted that Trump has also been accused of sexual misconduct by numerous women over the years.
“I just really don’t want to be part of influencing an election one way or another,” Reade said. “Both of them have serious allegations of sexual misconduct. That alone should be disqualifying for both of them.”
She suggested that if those working for Trump are serious about getting to the bottom of sexual misconduct, they could create a bipartisan task force without appearing to politicize the allegations.
Trump notoriously used allegations of sexual assault against Bill Clinton as a political tool in the 2016 election after a leaked Access Hollywood video revealed Trump making light of sexual assault, bragging that “when you’re a star, they let you do it,” including, “grab ’em by the p—-.”
Two days later, Trump’s campaign held a press conference with three women who had accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct and a fourth who had accused him of rape hours before a debate against the former president’s wife and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
The Trump campaign has not reached out to Reade, she said, making it unlikely that the campaign is planning on using her for a similar stunt this election cycle. Other Republicans haven’t reached out to her either; she says she hasn’t spoken to any politicians or operatives from either party.
Reade maintains indignation at Democrats for not believing her allegations in the same way that they eagerly believed Blasey Ford’s.
“Democrats are quite crafty at weaponizing sexual assault and sexual harassment,” she said. “They’re a wolf in sheep’s clothing because they hold the mantle of ‘Me Too’ while they’re smearing any kind of survivors that come out against someone in their Democratic establishment.”
