# Tara Reade's Joe Biden Sexual Assault Allegations
Tara Reade's Joe Biden Sexual Assault Allegations refers to the public accusations made by former U.S. Senate staff member Tara Reade against then-presidential candidate Joe Biden in 2019 and 2020. Her March 2020 statement describing a 1993 rape sparked the viral #IBelieveTaraReade hashtag and became one of the most contested political stories of the 2020 Democratic primary.
## Origin
Reade first spoke publicly on April 3rd, 2019, in a story for The Union, a Nevada County, California newspaper, saying of Biden, "He used to put his hand on my shoulder and run his finger up my neck. I would just kind of freeze and wait for him to stop doing that."[1] A friend of Reade's, kept anonymous by the paper, confirmed Reade had told them the story shortly after it happened in 1993[1]. The same day, journalists on Twitter began recirculating Reade's older pro-Putin blog posts, and Daily Dot wrote up the resulting "Russian agent" conspiracy framing[2].
The meme-adjacent viral moment arrived almost a year later. On March 25th, 2020, Twitter user @kthalps posted a SoundCloud interview in which Reade described the alleged 1993 assault for the first time publicly, framing it with the hashtag #meToo[4]. Redditor rafiki_stonedape then posted a full transcript to r/OurPresident the same week[5].
- **Platform:** News media (The Union) / Twitter (viral spread)
- **Creator:** Tara Reade
- **Date:** 2019
## Overview
The story first surfaced in April 2019 when Reade told a local Nevada County paper that Biden touched her shoulder and ran a finger up her neck during her time as a staff assistant in his U.S. Senate office in 1993[1]. She said her duties were cut back after she refused to serve drinks at an event because Biden reportedly liked her legs, and she left the office that August[1]. The allegations initially sat alongside other complaints from women like Lucy Flores and Amy Lappos, who had described uncomfortable touching by the former vice president[1].
In March 2020 Reade escalated the account, telling a podcast that Biden had sexually assaulted her in a Senate corridor[7]. The expanded version shifted the story from awkward touching to rape, which is why the second wave produced a much louder online fight than the first[7]. Pushback online also focused on Reade's prior writing praising Vladimir Putin, which some users circulated to question her motives[2].
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Tara Reade's Joe Biden Sexual Assault Allegations?
It refers to the 2019 and 2020 public accusations made by former Senate staffer Tara Reade against Joe Biden, including a 1993 assault claim she detailed in a March 2020 podcast interview[4].
### Where did Tara Reade's Joe Biden Sexual Assault Allegations come from?
Reade first spoke to Nevada County, California paper The Union on April 3rd, 2019 about inappropriate touching in Biden's Senate office, then expanded the account via a SoundCloud interview shared on Twitter in March 2020[1][4].
### What does Tara Reade's Joe Biden Sexual Assault Allegations mean?
The story became shorthand online for a #MeToo test case inside the 2020 Democratic primary, with the hashtag #IBelieveTaraReade used by supporters who felt the press was ignoring her[6].
### How do you use Tara Reade's Joe Biden Sexual Assault Allegations?
People used it mainly as a political argument, either by tweeting #IBelieveTaraReade or by comparing Democratic silence on Reade with the party's louder support for Christine Blasey Ford against Brett Kavanaugh[7].
### Is Tara Reade's Joe Biden Sexual Assault Allegations still popular?
The viral peak was spring 2020 around Biden's May 1st denial on Morning Joe and his request that the National Archives release any complaint, which the Washington Post could not find[3].
## References
1. [https://www.theunion.com/news/nevada-county-woman-says-joe-biden-inappropriately-touched-her-while-working-in-his-u-s-senate-office/]()
2. [https://www.dailydot.com/debug/joe-biden-russian-agent/]()
3. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/joe-biden-denies-he-sexually-assaulted-a-former-senate-aide/2020/05/01/08d59662-8b39-11ea-9dfd-990f9dcc71fc_story.html]()
4. [https://twitter.com/kthalps/status/1242691746561167360]()
5. [https://www.reddit.com/r/OurPresident/comments/foyfxy/transcript_of_joe_bidens_accuser_tara_reade/]()
6. [https://twitter.com/FlyThaiMMA/status/1243143015817977856]()
7. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/tara-reades-joe-biden-sexual-assault-allegations]()
8. [https://twitter.com/CapehartJ/status/1256214714583056388]()
9. [https://twitter.com/philipaklein/status/1256204963975516162]()
10. [https://twitter.com/PepperOceanna/status/1243151491667578880]()
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Source: https://meme.com/memes/tara-reades-joe-biden-sexual-assault-allegations
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