Every allegation of sexual assault must be taken seriously.
Every credentialed media outlet has the responsibility of then investigating and relaying the facts to the public.
Such is the case of former Senate aide Tara Reade, who last year accused Joe Biden of inappropriate touching and has now made an allegation of sexual assault against the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
Reade claims that in 1993, Biden pinned her to a wall in a Senate building, reached under her clothing and penetrated her with his fingers.
Biden deputy campaign manager and communications director Kate Bedingfield said in a statement that the former vice president “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.”
In interviews, several people who worked in the Senate office with Reade said they did not recall any talk of such an incident or similar behavior by Biden toward her or any women.
Two office interns who worked directly with Reade said they were unaware of the allegation or any treatment that troubled her.
No other allegation about sexual assault surfaced in the course of reporting, nor did any former Biden staff members corroborate any details of Reade’s allegation.
Reade, 56, told The New York Times that the assault happened in the spring of 1993.
She said she had tracked down Biden to deliver an athletic bag when he pushed her against a cold wall, started kissing her neck and hair and propositioned her.
He slid his hand up her cream-colored blouse, she said, and used his knee to part her bare legs before reaching under her skirt.
“It happened at once. He’s talking to me and his hands are everywhere and everything is happening very quickly,” she recalled. “He was kissing me and he said, very low, ‘Do you want to go somewhere else?’”
Reade said she pulled away and Biden stopped.
“He looked at me kind of almost puzzled or shocked,” she said. “He said, ‘Come on, man, I heard you liked me.’”
At the time, Reade said she worried whether she had done something wrong to encourage his advances.
“He pointed his finger at me and he just goes: ‘You’re nothing to me. Nothing,’” she said. “Then, he took my shoulders and said, ‘You’re OK, you’re fine.’”
Biden walked down the hallway, Reade said, and she cleaned up in a restroom, made her way home and, sobbing, called her mother, who encouraged her to immediately file a police report.
Reade said, she complained to Marianne Baker, Biden’s executive assistant, as well as to two top aides, Dennis Toner and Ted Kaufman, about harassment by Biden — not mentioning the alleged assault.
The staff declined to take action, Reade said.
In an interview, Kaufman, who was Biden’s chief of staff at the time, said: “I did not know her. She did not come to me. If she had, I would have remembered her.”
Toner, who worked for Biden for over three decades, said the allegation was out of character for Biden.
Other senators and office staffs had reputations for harassing women at work and partying after hours, according to those who worked in the office at the time.
Biden was known for racing to catch the train to get home to Wilmington, Del., every night.
“It’s just so preposterous that Senator Biden would be faced with these allegations,” said Toner, who was deputy chief of staff when Reade worked in the office. “I don’t remember her. I don’t remember this conversation. And I would remember this conversation.”
Just last year Reade said that Biden made her feel uncomfortable when she worked as a Senate aide in 1993, but that she did not consider Biden’s actions to be sexual in nature.
Her story suddenly changed this year as Biden defeated Sen. Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination.
Reade backed Sanders, and had not made this accusation during Biden’s eight years as vice president.
Her recent allegations contain inconsistencies from 2017, when she praised Biden several times on Twitter for helping end sexual assault.
Melissa Lefko, a former staff assistant for Biden from 1992 to 1993, said she did not remember Reade.
But she recalled that Biden’s office was a “very supportive environment for women” and said she had never experienced any kind of harassment there.
“When you work on the Hill, everyone knows who the good guys are and who the bad guys are, and Biden was a good guy,” she said.
Reade has also faced accusations online that she was a Russian agent because of posts and tweets, several of which are now deleted, she had written praising President Vladimir Putin.
Reade said that she was not working for Russia and did not support Putin, calling her praise for Putin “misguided.”
Last May, former Nevada state assemblywoman Lucy Flores wrote about a time when Biden made her uncomfortable at a Democratic campaign rally by kissing her on the head and touching or hugging her.
That spurred more women to come forward to talk about their own self-described “uncomfortable” experiences with Biden that included unwanted kissing, hugging or touching.
Last year, Biden, 77, acknowledged the women’s complaints about his conduct, saying his intentions were benign and promising to be “more mindful and respectful of people’s personal space.”
Women’s groups that backed Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s sexual assault accusations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh last year have been mostly silent regarding Reade’s accusations against Biden, prompting conservatives to raise questions of a double standard.
President Trump has been accused of sexual assault and misconduct by more than a dozen women, who have described a pattern of behavior that went far beyond the accusations against Biden.
Trump also directed illegal payments, including $130,000 to a pornographic film actress, Stormy Daniels, before the 2016 election to silence women about alleged affairs with Trump, according to federal prosecutors.
Trump has even boasted about his mistreatment of women; in a 2005 recording, he described pushing himself on women and said he would “grab them by the pussy,” bragging that he could get away with “anything” because of his celebrity.