A woman who called into CNN’s “Larry King Live” in the early 1990s and spoke about her daughter experiencing issues while working for “a prominent senator” was the mother of Tara Reade, who has accused former Vice President Joe Biden of assaulting her, according to Reade.
“Her indignation of how I was treated prompted her to reach out in 1993,” Reade, 56, said in a statement late Friday.
The call bolsters Reade’s accusation against Biden, the 77-year-old presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. His campaign didn’t return a request for comment.
The female caller from California tells King, the host, that she wanted to ask about possible options for her daughter’s alleged situation.
“Yes, hello. I’m wondering what a staffer would do besides go to the press in Washington?” the woman said. “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.”
“She had a story to tell but, out of respect for the person she worked for, she didn’t tell it?” King asked to clarify.
“That’s true,” the woman responded, before a panel began to discuss the woman’s claim.
The woman did not mention sexual harassment or sexual assault.
Reade said the caller was her mother.
“I miss her so much and her brave support of me,” Reade said. “My mother was so brave and supportive. It has been an emotional day to hear her voice again.”
“Already I was being threatened and kind of smeared, and I just I wasn’t ready,” Reade said. “So I talked about the sexual harassment and what I was comfortable talking about, but I wasn’t ready to talk about sexual assault.”
In a statement sent to news outlets after the police report was filed, Biden campaign spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield said that Reade’s allegation was false.
“He firmly believes that women have a right to be heard—and heard respectfully,” Bedingfield said. “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 video from “Larry King Live” was published from the archives of the Media Research Center, a media watchdog group, after The Intercept published a transcript of the woman calling into the show.
The caller said she was living in San Luis Obispo County—where Reade’s mother lived in August 1993, according to The Intercept.
That month was the final month of employment for Reade in Biden’s Senate office.
Reade had previously told outlets that her mother had called into the “Larry King Show,” but that she couldn’t recall the date.
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