HBO host John Oliver joined the chorus of liberal celebrities who believe that Tara Reade’s allegation of sexual assault against Joe Biden deserves a fair hearing.
Speaking about the allegations on his Sunday show, Oliver said that even though Biden has denied Tara Reade’s claims, there are still “big questions” that need answering.
“Now, he’s denied that claim, but there are clearly big questions still to be answered here, and Tara Reade obviously deserves to be heard the way that anyone does when they make the difficult choice to come forward with allegations of this kind — allegations which should, of course, be fully investigated. And I am sure that we will talk more about this as the story unfolds,” Oliver said, as reported by Washington Examiner.
Oliver’s tone was markedly different than fellow HBO comedian Bill Maher, who dismissed Reade’s allegation against Joe Biden as “ridiculous and that it would go away and no one would pay any attention to it.”
Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez simultaneously dismissed the allegation against Joe Biden, asserting that conservative media have made it a bigger deal than it actually is, going as far to compare it to the Hillary email scandal.
“There’s been so many investigations of the vice-president. The most comprehensive investigation of the vice-president was when he was vetted by Barack Obama in 2008. I’m very familiar with the vice-presidential vetting process. They look at everything about you,” Perez said on ABC News’ “This Week.”
“They looked at the entire history of Joe Biden, his entire career,” he continued. “And I’ll tell you, if Barack Obama had any indication that there was an issue, Barack Obama would not have had him as his vice-president. Barack Obama trusted Joe Biden. I trust Joe Biden. And those investigations have been done.”
“This is like the Hillary emails, because there was nothing there,” he added.
Former Barack Obama campaign chief strategist David Axelrod also said over the weekend that Tara Reade’s allegation against Joe Biden never came up during the vetting process in 2008.
In March, Tara Reade claimed that then-Senator Joe Biden sexually assaulted her while she served as an aide in his Senate offices during the Clinton administration. She has since detailed her account in multiple interviews and filed a criminal complaint against the former vice president with the Washington, D.C., police department. A former neighbor of Reade and Reade’s brother have both publicly stated that Reade told them of the alleged assault in the 1990s. Recently surfaced evidence also suggests that Reade’s mother called into CNN’s Larry King in the 1990s to complain about a prominent senator with whom her daughter had “problems.”
On Saturday, The Associated Press reported that two new people, both of whom wished to remain anonymous, said that Reade spoke of Biden’s behavior prior to her going public.
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