Tara Reade’s allegation that Joe Biden sexually assaulted her 27 years ago, has been officially denied by the presidential candidate this Friday, saying “This never happened”. This statement comes as the first response in detail to the matter, following pressure exerted upon Biden to address the situation.

Some parts of the statement include:

While the details of these allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault are complicated, two things are not complicated. One is that women deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and when they step forward they should be heard, not silenced. The second is that their stories should be subject to appropriate inquiry and scrutiny.

Statement made by the presumptive Democratic 2020 nominee

Responsible news organizations should examine and evaluate the full and growing record of inconsistencies in her story, which has changed repeatedly in both small and big ways. But this bears much emphasizing. She has said she raised some of these issues with her supervisor and senior staffers from my office at the time. They—both men and a woman—have said, unequivocally, that she never came to them and complained or raised issues. News organizations that have talked with literally dozens of former staffers have not found one—not one—who corroborated her allegations in any way. Indeed, many of them spoke to the culture of an office that would not have tolerated harassment in any way—as indeed I would not have.

In an interview with MSNBC, Biden has repeatedly stated that it never happened, unequivocally. He has not reached out to Reade, and claims to not remember her making any sort of complaint. In this same interview, he said that he does not know why Reade was alleging that he had assaulted her, but that he will not attempt to question her motives.

Weeks prior, his only response had been a statement made by Kate Bedingfield, former deputy campaign manager, in which she brought to the public’s attention the fact that Biden played a large role in elaborating the Violence Against Women Act, likely to showcase the nominee’s alliance with the movement. Past staffers also said that Reade did not complain about Biden at the time.

As the Democratic nominee, Joe Biden is going up against Donald Trump, current President of the United States. Trump himself has received over a dozen accusations of unwelcome advances, sexual harassment, and sexual assault. However, women expected to be in consideration as Biden’s Vice President have voiced their support for him, pointing to his advocacy for women and victims of abuse.

CNN has interviewed former Biden aides, all of which said that they were in no way aware of any sort of sexual harassment or assault allegations. Biden’s executive assistant in the 1980s and 1990s, Marianne Baker, repeated that she had no knowledge regarding reports of inappropriate conduct.

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