Biden’s denial comes more than three weeks after Tara Reade alleged that he forcibly penetrated her with his fingers in a Senate building in 1993 while she was working as an aide. 

“They aren’t true,” said Biden in a statement issued on Friday. “This never happened.”

Since  Reade’s allegations were made, a number of her friends have come forward to corroborate her story, saying that . Reade told them about the incident after it happened in the 1990s.

Lynda LaCasse,  Reade’s former neighbor, has said that  she  reported the incident to her in 1995 or 1996.

“I don’t remember all the details,” LaCasse said. “I remember the skirt. I remember the fingers. I remember she was devastated.”

Up until now, Biden has remained noticeably silent on the matter. Instead of addressing the allegations directly himself, Biden had denied these allegations through campaign members as well as through the backing of various high profile women.

“I’m satisfied with how he’s responded,” said  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “I’m very proud to endorse him”.

Last week, former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton endorsed Biden’s presidential campaign and praised his history of fighting against sexual violence.

Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate, Stacey Abrams, who is rumoured to be a possible candidate for Biden’s running mate, also voiced support for the former vice president.

“The New York Times did a deep investigation and they found that the accusation was not credible,” said Abrams. “I believe Joe Biden”.

Some inconsistencies have been pointed out in  Reade’s allegations. She alleged that shortly after the incident, she complained to Marianne Baker, Biden’s executive assistant, as well as to top aides Dennis Toner and Ted Kaufman. However, all three of these people have categorically denied having received any such complaint.

 Reade initially alleged last year that Biden had made her feel uncomfortable by inappropriately touching her shoulder. It was only in March this year that Reade alleged that Biden had sexually assaulted her.

But  Reade said that the reporter with whom she first shared allegations of Biden’s inappropriate behaviour had made her feel uncomfortable and she was “shut down” from sharing the details of the full extent of Biden’s assault.

 Reade said that she filed a formal harassment complaint in 1993 with the congressional personnel office. Biden has said that if such a complaint were filed, then there would be a record in the National Archives. Biden has requested that the National Archives release any documents that may relate to such a complaint.

However, since Biden made this request on Friday, Reade has now said that the complaint she filed actually did not contain allegations of “harassment”.

Biden has not offered to release records from his Senate career which he donated to the University of Delaware in 2012. These records are currently sealed until Biden retires from public life – a usual agreement in such arrangements.

When pressed to make these documents public, Biden has responded that these records do not contain any personnel records and so would not contain any information about the alleged complaint. However, Biden has said that these documents contain other sensitive information which may be unfairly exploited against his current presidential campaign.

Democrats, as well as various prominent women’s organizations, have been criticized for hypocrisy in their handling of the allegations against Biden as opposed to those against Supreme Court Justice, Brett Kavanaugh, and President Donald Trump. Critics have said that Democrats who were quick to believe Kavanaugh’s and Trump’s accusers, have hesitated to believe  Reade.

Both 2020 Presidential candidates now have allegations of sexual assault against them. This is the first allegation of sexual assault against  Biden. There are over a dozen allegations against  Trump.

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Hugh Hicks, a sanitation worker was attacked while picking up trash. He told his story in front of City Hall during a press conference. Photo by Jia Guo

A new law signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo last month prosecutes anyone who assaults a sanitation worker in New York City. The attackers now could face a sentence of 2 to 7 years in prison. This law provides the same protection to sanitation workers as firefighters and other uniformed forces.

In a press conference today in front of City Hall, Harry Nespoli, president of the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association expressed his gratitude to Charles Hynes, Brooklyn District Attorney for helping develop the law, and to other supporters.

Hynes said the new law will let the public know the consequences if they assault a sanitation worker.

“This law will send a message that we will not tolerate any violent attacks committed against the sanitation workers who work hard to keep our city clean,” Hynes said. “An attack on one of our sanitation workers is an attack on us all.”

Six thousand public sanitation workers are working in New York City, 160 of them are women. They work 8-hour shifts driving up and down the city’s streets picking up garbage, but sometimes trash hauling turns violent. Nespoli said in 2010, six sanitation workers were assaulted, but that number doubled in 2011.

In a press release Nespoli said that sometimes sanitation workers are assaulted for a multitude of reasons, but mostly by impatient drivers stuck behind the trash trucks on narrow streets.

Hugh Hicks, 48, a sanitation worker at the press conference, said that a woman punched him in the chest in Queens because his truck blocked the street and she couldn’t drive past it.

“I was shocked and can’t hit back,” Hicks said, “I am doing my job. I didn’t block the road on purpose.”

Juan Ramos, 77, a retired sanitation worker, who was on the job for 24 years, said he was hospitalized after an attack while was picking up garbage three years ago. He said an impatient driver yelled at him and asked him to move the truck. When he did not, the driver pulled out a shovel and hit him with it, fracturing his ribs.

“Those men and women are heroes,” Nespoli said during the press conference. “The new law will make their jobs easy on the daily basis. It is like punching back.”

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