One of the bigger changes that has come with the 2022 midterms and the mixup in who was elected is that Nancy Pelosi is out, or “fired” by the American people as Lauren Boebert recently said, and was replaced by the Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries.
Rep. Jeffries, though no friend of the GOP and new to the job, has already made news and waves because of his previous pledges regarding Biden and said that the sexual assault accusation against President Joe Biden by Tara Reade, “needs to be investigated seriously.”
Now that he is both House Minority Leader and leader of the Democratic Caucus, Jeffries will be in a good position to follow through on that work with Republicans, who will presumably to be led by Rep. Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the Hosue, to investigate the allegation via a Congressional committee.
Of course, Jeffries could back down now that he’s been handed the reigns of power. But Jeffries was, to be fair to him, one of the few who broke ranks with the Democratic Party generally and addressed the accusation against Biden in April 2020, as reported by Fox News.
In April 2020, Jeffries told WNYC “It’s got to be taken seriously because this is a serious allegation raised by a serious individual and needs to be investigated seriously. We’ve probably got to hear from him [Biden] at some point directly.”
Continuing, he said, “I’m not really in a position to say what is the appropriate mechanism, although this needs to be taken seriously.”
For context, Tara Reade is a former Biden Senate Staffer who accused then-Senator Biden of sexually assaulting her at the Senate Office Building in 1993. She discussed those claims in an account given to The New York Times that was published in Sept. 2020.
In it, Reade detailed the alleged incident, which she said happened in the Spring of 1993. According to her, she had followed after then-Senator Biden to give a bag to him. Upon catching up to him, Reade was (allegedly) shoved against a cold wall by Biden. She claims that he then began kissing her neck and “propositioned her” for sex.
Yet worse and more disgustingly, as he did so, Reade claims, Biden slid his hand up her blouse and used his knee to part her legs, reaching up her skirt.
Speaking on that to the NYT, Reade said:
“It happened at once. He’s talking to me and his hands are everywhere and everything is happening very quickly,” she told Times reporters. “He was kissing me and he said, very low, ‘Do you want to go somewhere else?’”
Reade said that when she pulled away Biden stopped and reacted with puzzlement or shock. She added, “He said, ‘Come on, man, I heard you liked me.’” If nothing else, Reade certainly has Biden’s speech patterns down pat.
Kate Bedingfield, a deputy Biden campaign manager, pushed back on Reade’s claims in a statement to the New York Times, saying:
“Vice President Biden has dedicated his public life to changing the culture and the laws around violence against women. He authored and fought for the passage and reauthorization of the landmark Violence Against Women Act. He firmly believes that women have a right to be heard — and heard respectfully. Such claims should also be diligently reviewed by an independent press. What is clear about this claim: It is untrue. This absolutely did not happen.”
"*" indicates required fields