The mother of a woman who claims she was sexually assaulted by Joe Biden appeared to allude to the incident in a call to CNN’s “Larry King Live.”
In the recently rediscovered clip, an unnamed caller to King’s show hinted at the “problems” her daughter suffered at while working for a “prominent senator” — but doesn’t mention sexual harassment or identify Biden by name.
Former Biden staffer Tara Reade has claimed Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, pinned her against a wall in 1993 and assaulted her while he was a Senator from Delaware. The Biden campaign has strenuously denied the allegations.
Reade said it was indeed her mother, who died in 2016, on the call.
“This is my mom. I miss her so much and her brave support of me,” Reade said in a tweet late Friday evening.
“Yes, hello. I’m wondering what a staffer would do besides go to the press in Washington? My daughter has just left there, after working for a prominent senator, and could not get through with her problems at all, and the only thing she could have done was go to the press, and she chose not to do it out of respect for him,” said mom Jeanette Altimus in the clip — which was first reported in The Intercept.
But the caller could have also been referring to “bullying” from Biden staffers, which Reade spoke about to the Washington Post earlier this year.
You can watch the clip here.