Senator Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) on Thursday attacked former Joe Biden staffer Tara Reade, who alleges she was sexually assaulted by Biden in the spring of 1993.
Feinstein said the allegations were “totally different” than those against Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh.
“Kavanaugh was under the harshest inspection that we give people over a substantial period of time,” Feinstein told CNN on Thursday. “And I don’t know this person at all [Reade] who has made the allegations [against Biden]. She came out of nowhere. Where has she been all these years? He was vice president.”
Christine Blasey Ford, Kavanaugh’s accuser, claimed that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in 1982, an allegation that was known by Feinstein’s office before it was publicly reported in September 2018. Feinstein later denied that she or anyone in her office had withheld Ford’s allegation for political purposes or had leaked the allegation to the press.
Reade, meanwhile, called on Biden to drop out of the presidential race in an interview with Megyn Kelly released Thursday.
“I want to say: You were there, Joe Biden. Please, step forward and be held accountable. You should not be running on character for the president of the United States,” Reade said.