Tara Reade says she didn't mention assault in alleged complaint against Biden

Even if Tara Reade's decades-old complaint about former Vice President Joe Biden did surface, it wouldn't mention an assault, she says.

Reade has accused Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, of sexually assaulting her when she worked for his Senate office in 1993. But while Reade did file a complaint about Biden at the time with the Senate personnel office, she told ABC News that it wouldn't mention the alleged assault, only that Biden "made her feel uncomfortable."

Reade's comment comes after Biden released a statement Friday denying the assault ever happened and asking the National Archives to search for the complaint Reade says she launched against him. The University of Delaware also maintains a large collection of Biden's papers, but said they won't be publicly available until at least spring 2021. Biden said in a Friday morning interview with MSNBC's Morning Joe that those papers should remain private because they could become "political fodder" during the 2020 presidential race.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Reade previously said she could've gone to the press with her allegation against Biden at the time, but didn't "out of respect" for him. "This never happened," Biden said in his Friday statement. "Women deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and when they step forward they should be heard, not silenced," but "their stories should be subject to appropriate inquiry and scrutiny," Biden's statement continued.