Was This Lie Told Out Of Ignorance?

Former Vice-President Joe Biden appeared on MSNBC this morning to answer Tara Reade’s charges of sexual assault. MSNBC posted the video and the transcript. Breitbart posted an article this morning about something Joe Biden said in the interview that is false.

The article at Breitbart reports:

The National Archives and Records Administration on Friday disputed former Vice President Joe Biden’s claim that the record of a sexual harassment complaint allegedly made by former staffer Tara Reade would be in its possession.

Biden, who faces growing pressure on the topic from both allies and the media, told MSNBC’s Morning Joe that there was no truth to claims he either harassed or sexually assaulted Reade while she worked for his Senate office in the early 1990s.

“No, it is not true,” Biden told the show hosts. “I’m saying unequivocally it never, never happened and it didn’t. It never happened.”

The MSNBC appearance marked the first time that Biden has addressed the accusations directly since Reade reemerged last month.

Reade, who worked for Biden’s congressional office between 1992 and 1993, had initially come forward last April to accuse the former vice president of unwanted touching. At the time, she told a local California news outlet that she had filed a complaint noting the misconduct with the Senate’s personnel office when it purportedly occurred. In March, however, she claimed there was more to the story, asserting that Biden had pushed her up against a wall, forcibly kissed her, and digitally penetrated her sometime in 1993.

IF Ms. Reade filed a complaint (as she has stated) with the Senate’s personnel office at the time, that record should be available to be checked.

The article explains where that record would be and why it is inaccessible:

The National Archives did not respond to requests from Breitbart News before press time. The organization, however, did inform Business Insider that it does not possess records from the Senate Fair Employment Practices offices. Instead, those records are governed by rules crafted by the Senate, which state that they cannot be made public until 50 years after a complaint has been made in order to ensure the privacy of individuals impacted.

The article concludes:

The rules ensure that, unless the Senate acts to release the information, any documents from Reade’s 1993 employment will not be made public until at least 2043.

The problem with this accusation is that there are people who were told of the accusation at the time it happened. There is also a recording of a call to Larry King Live that is said to be Tara Reade’s mother talking about the incident.

There are also a lot of pictures that show a pattern of inappropriate behavior by Joe Biden:

The man obviously has very little respect for personal space.