Joe Biden has been making headlines lately for all the wrong reasons.
And this time, a story has come out that is truly horrifying.
Wednesday morning an audio clip was released of an interview with with a woman named Tara Reade, who was a former Biden staffer.
During the interview Reade goes onto to describe in explicit detail that Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993.
She claims she was instructed to rush a gym bag to Biden, and when she arrived with the bag Biden greeted her, then proceeded to sexually assault her.
“We were alone, and it was the strangest thing. There was no, like, exchange really, he just had me up against the wall,” Reade said.
“His hands were on me, and underneath my clothes. He went down my skirt, but then up inside. He penetrated me with his fingers," Reade later claims.
Reade says that Biden asked her if she "wanted to go somewhere else," and once it was over he said, "C’mon man, I heard you liked me.”
Reade said that specific phrase stuck with her:
For me, it was like everything shattered in that moment because I knew that we were alone. It was over, right? He wasn’t trying to do anything more – but I looked up to him, he was like my father’s age, he was like this champion of women’s rights in my eyes and I couldn’t believe it was happening. It seemed surreal. I just felt sick because when he pulled back, he looked annoyed, and he said something else to me that I don’t want to say, and then he said – I must have looked shocked … I don’t know how I looked, but I must have looked something because he grabbed me by the shoulders, and said, “You’re okay. You’re fine. You’re okay. You’re fine,” and then he walked away, and went on with his day.
After the alleged incident, Reade says she was shaking in a stairwell trying to grasp what happened and what she should do next.
At this point she claims Biden pointed at her and said, "You're nothing to me!"
He just like pointed at me and he said, “You’re nothing to me!” And then he just looked at me and said, “You’re nothing. Nothing.” … I must’ve reacted because that’s when he took me by the shoulders and he said, “You’re okay. You’re fine. You’re okay.”
The interviewer, journalist and podcaster Katie Harper, notes there were no witnesses to the alleged assault, but that Reade's brother and close friend "recalled her telling them about the incident at the time."
This isn't the first time Biden has been accused of innappropriate behavior or sexual harrassment.
You can listen to the whole interview here:
*WARNING: The following sound clip contains details of an alleged graphic sexual assault and sexual language and discretion is advised.