A 1993 clip has emerged of the mother of Vice President Joe Biden‘s sexual assault accuser speaking to CNN‘s Larry King about her daughter’s alleged assault.
The video appears to back former Biden staffer Tara Reade’s claims that she told her mother about the harassment related to her boss 27 years ago.
Reade filed an official criminal complaint against the now presumptive Democratic presidential frontrunner on April 9, accusing Biden of shoving his hand under her skirt and penetrating her with his fingers while they stood in a senate corridor, an accusation he denied.
The latest evidence to emerge shows Reade’s mother Jeanette Altimus calling into the Larry King Show in August 1993, the same month that Reade left Biden’s staff, and anonymously asking a panel’s advice on her daughter’s ‘problems’ with a ‘prominent senator’.
There is no mention of sexual assault in the clip.
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A new clip appears to show Tara Reade’s mother Jeanette Altimus calling into Larry King and asking about her ‘problems’ with a ‘prominent senator’ in 1993. The clip does not mention sexual assault allegations. Reade filed a formal complaint against the VP this month
Former Biden staffer Tara Reade claims she was sexually assaulted by the Vice President in 1993 when she was in her 20s. She claimed she complained to her superiors in Biden’s office but got nowhere. A new clip with appears to show her mother speaking to Larry King after the alleged assault could back Reade’s claims that she reported the assault in 1993
VP Joe Biden has vehemently denied Reade’s claims she was sexually assaulted
Reade, who was in her 20s at the time of the alleged assault, had previously revealed Altimus called into the show when she told her about the sexual assault claims 27 years ago but was unable to remember the exact date or year of the phone call.
When news of her official complaint against Biden first emerged, Reade said she had told her mother, brother and a friend about the assault at the time. She said her mother urged her to go to the police.
Her brother Collin Moulton and the anonymous friend confirmed this, but Altimus died in 2016.
The new clip was discovered by The Intercept and Reade confirmed that it was her mother’s voice on Twitter.
‘I remember it being an anonymous call and her saying my daughter was sexually harassed and retaliated against and fired, where can she go for help? I was mortified,’ Reade told The Intercept.
The CNN clip does not reference sexual harassment or anyone being fired but features an anonymous woman asking if her daughter should go to the press because of problems with a senator.
The interview featured in a program King aired on August 11, 1993, titled, ‘Washington: The Cruelest City on Earth?’ and the caller was identified as a woman dialing in from San Luis Obispo, California.
Records show that August 1993 was he last month Reade worked with Biden’s office and that Altimus was living in San Luis Obispo County at the time.
The 1993 clip shows an anonymous caller form California speak to Larry King about her daughter’s problem with a ‘prominent senator’. Reade said it is her mother’s voice
The anonymous caller asked the panel whether her daughter should go to the press but they did not offer any advice. Reade had mentioned her mother’s call in previous interviews
‘I’m wondering what a staffer would do besides go to the press in Washington?’ the caller asked.
‘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.’
The panel did not offer any suggestions or advice to the caller but talked about whether they would leak news on a rival to the press.
Reade responded to the clip on Twitter, identifying the voice as her mother’s.
‘This is my mom. I miss her so much and her brave support of me,’ she wrote.
‘I discussed the Larry King call w reporters last year and on Katie Halper publicly. Thank you for posting.
‘I miss my mom as she died 4 years ago. Her indignation of how I was treated prompted her to reach out in 1993.
‘Thank you to those who found the Larry King episode I told reporters about.
‘My mother was so brave and supportive. It has been an emotional day to hear her voice again. How I wish she knew how much I appreciated her love hug your mother if you can.’
Reade posted an image on social media of what she looked like in 1993, the year she alleged Biden sexually assaulted her. A new clip has emerged with appears to back her claims that she told her mother, brother and a friend about the alleged assault when it happened in 1993
An undated photo of Reade that she included in a social media post about her assault claims
Just before filing the complaint on April 9, Reade said in a tweet (pictured) that those who ‘silence sexual assault & sexual harassment survivors’ are complicit in the alleged abuse, without naming whom she was referring to. VP Biden has denied the accusations
Tara Reade filed the complaint about the alleged assault with the Washington Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C. on April 9 after going public with her story in March.
She revealed that the statute of limitations on the allegation had passed, but that ‘there is justice in just being heard in a dignified way.’
Reade was among the women who came out last year alleging Biden was too handsy but did not make her allegation of sexual assault until speaking with journalist Katie Halper for her ‘Katie Halper Show’ podcast on March 25.
Reade told Halper that the assault occurred after she was told to deliver a gym bag to the then-senator. Reade said she tracked down Biden on Capitol Hill and he remembered her name.
‘And then we were alone. And it was the strangest thing. There was no, like, exchange really, he just had me up against the wall,’ she said.
She said she was wearing a work skirt, but no pantyhose.
‘He just had me up against the wall and the wall was cold,’ she said. ‘His hands were on me and underneath my clothes. He went down my skirt and then up inside it and he penetrated me with his fingers. He was kissing me at the same time,’ she said.
She said that when she ‘pulled back,’ Biden ‘looked annoyed.’
Reade said Biden said to her, ‘Come on man, I heard you liked me.’
‘He implied that I had done this,’ she told the podcast host.
At first Reade didn’t want to mention the other quote that got stuck in her head, but then she told Halper what it was.
‘You’re nothing to me,’ she claimed the senator said to her. ‘Nothing.’
Democratic U.S. presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden has not yet responded to the new clip that may be evidence of an alleged sexual assault
Reade said that she had attempted to bring up her concerns about the alleged assault to her superiors in Biden’s office but got nowhere, a claim that the new clip of her mother appears to back.
She had previously said that in 1993 Biden, then still a senator from Delaware, touched her several times and made her feel uncomfortable.
Reade also said her duties were cut after she refused to serve drinks at an event. Biden, she claims, had wanted her serving because he liked her legs. The former staffer said she later felt pushed out and left in August 1993 after only nine months.
Biden and his campaign have fiercely denied the claims.
‘Women have the right to tell their story, and reporters have an obligation to rigorously vet those claims,’ Deputy Campaign Manager and Communications Director Kate Bedingfield said.
‘We encourage them to do so, because these accusations are false.
‘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,’ she told Politico.
‘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.’
The newly discovered clip drew much attention on social media and was shared by the likes of Donald Trump Jr.
‘OMG. Even today’s media will have a hard time not covering this, but they will try desperately.’ he wrote.
‘Joe Biden isn’t sheltering in place in his basement bunker because of the pandemic, he’s hiding from Tara Reade.’
‘In 1993 the mother of Tara Reade was so disturbed by what her daughter told her @JoeBiden did to her, & the lack of help she said she got from his staff, that she called Larry King to talk about it the week Tara stopped working for him,’ said activist Shaun King.
‘TARA READE IS TELLING THE TRUTH’, tweeted actress and #MeToo advocate Rose McGowan.
Others highlighted that the new clip provides evidence that Reade complained to Biden’s office in 1993.
‘This is an important piece of additional reporting further bolstering the claims of #TaraReade, and undermining the story that has been told by the Biden campaign that no one EVER complained of harassment in his office,’ wrote The Hill reporter Krystal Ball.
‘Will @UDelaware release the records??’
The University confirmed the records ‘will remain closed to the public until two years after Mr. Biden retires from public life’, according to journalist Rich McHugh.