Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton formally endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden Tuesday as the embattled presumptive 2020 Democratic nominee ignores new developments in sexual allegations lodged against him.
“I am thrilled to be part of your campaign,” Clinton said during a live-streamed town hall on women impacted from the coronavirus. “I want to add my voice to the many that have endorsed you to be our president… This is a moment we need a leader and a president in Joe Biden.”
COVID-19 is affecting the entire nation, but the impact doesn’t look the same for everyone. I'm hosting a town hall on how COVID-19 is impacting women — and I'll be joined by special guest Hillary Clinton. Tune in now to watch: https://t.co/sQBaHGHgRQ
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 28, 2020
Clinton’s endorsement comes on the heels of several other high-profile endorsements once all other options in the race were eliminated. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders dropped out of the race earlier this month. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi endorsed Biden on Monday and former President Barack Obama declared his support for his former vice president after Biden became the last man standing.
Clinton’s announcement however, comes as Biden is faced with sexual assault allegations that have so far appeared markedly more credible than accusations launched by Christine Blasey Ford just a year and a half earlier against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Clinton at the time said Blasey Ford deserved “the benefit of the doubt” despite Ford offering no proof the she and Kavanaugh had even ever met. To the further detriment of Ford’s unsubstantiated claims, Ford was unable to produce a single witness who could corroborate her story, and even her lifelong friend, Leland Keyser, offered no evidence to support Ford’s accusations. Keyser was named by Ford as a witness, one of four who denied any knowledge of the event in question.
Reade’s charges on the other hand, have at this point produced a consistent story backed up by multiple witnesses, including her brother and several close friends, coming forward to support Reade’s claim that while working as a Biden Senate staffer in 1993, the Delaware senator forcibly kissed her and penetrated her with his fingers in a congressional hallway. Reade said she complained about the incident to her brother and mother and filed a complaint about the alleged assault with Biden Senate office before being let go from her job on Capitol Hill.
After Reade made her accusations public last month, her brother went on record to support Reade’s story and a 1993 tape from CNN’s “Larry King Live” where Reade’s mother called into the program also matched Reade’s description of events.
On Monday, two more sources came forward to lend credence to Reade’s timeline, telling Business Insider they both recalled Reade approaching them about the alleged assault.
The Biden campaign meanwhile, has simply denied the allegations with several Biden Senate staffers reporting they are unaware of any complaint filed by Reade, who is also unable to cite the date and precise location of the alleged harassment that took place more than 25 years ago.
Still, Reade’s story so far appears considerably more credible than Ford’s, though the bar set by Ford remains so low it’s practically non-existent.
Clinton, much like the rest of the Democratic Party that sought to destroy Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination and in turn, the man himself, has remained silent on the new allegations against Biden, instead offering her support to the presumptive nominee in the process. The 2016 nominee’s silence on the Reade allegations mark a sharp contrast from Clinton’s own rhetoric on accusations of sexual misconduct in just a few years prior.
“I want to send a message to every survivor of sexual assault: Don’t let anyone silence your voice,” Clinton said in a 2015 video. “You have a right to be heard, and you have a right to be believed. We’re with you.”
Hillary to every survivor of sexual assault: You have the right to be heard and believed. We're with you.https://t.co/HPJ2gPPwMs
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 15, 2015
Those are evidently empty words to Reade, Monica Lewsinsky, Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey, Paula Jones, and Leslie Millwee.
