House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she believes Joe Biden’s denial of sexual assault allegations against him and that she will no longer respond to questions about the matter.
During an interview on MSNBC Tuesday night, the California Democrat was asked if the claims were a “closed issue.”
“Well, it is for me,” Pelosi responded. “I have said I am proud to support Joe Biden for president. I believe him when he says it didn’t happen. But I also believe him when he says let them look into the records, and that’s what they should do.”
“But I’m not going to answer this question again,” Pelosi said, adding that she has confidence that the presumptive Democratic nominee will be a “great president” because he cares about health care and job security.
“He brings those values and his personal experience to a vision for America that is about fairness and not trickle-down economics, but bubble-up from that kitchen table, from working families in our country,” Pelosi said.
The former vice president responded to the claims by Tara Reade, who worked as a staffer in Biden’s Senate office in 1993, during an interview last Friday.
“It is not true. I’m saying it unequivocally — it never happened. It didn’t. It never happened,” Biden said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“This is an open book. There’s nothing for me to hide. Nothing at all,” he added.
Biden said he wasn’t aware of a complaint Reade said she made and suggested the secretary of the Senate search its records for a mention of it.
Secretary of the Senate Julie Adams said on Monday the chamber has “no discretion to disclose any such information” because of confidentiality requirements under the law.
Reade has acknowledged that she did not use the words “sexual harassment” or “sexual assault” in the complaint.