Tara Reade says she and her family are getting 'creepy' voice messages and being harassed online
Joe Biden's accuser Tara Reade has claimed she's being subjected to online harassment and is worried about her family's safety after she leveled sexual assault allegations against the former vice president.
"I find it astounding -- the hypocrisy that Democrats are talking about women being able to tell their story safely," Reade told Fox News on Saturday. "I'm a Democrat, a lifelong Democrat, but yet here I am trying to talk about my history with Joe Biden and I'm just the target of online harassment."
According to Reade, several social media accounts have been created by fake imposters, some of whom have uploaded personal pictures of her and her family without her permission.
One apparent Biden supporter reportedly took a screenshot of a fake quote from one of these accounts and shared it on Twitter, falsely accusing Reade of "deliberately tossing [Christine Blasey Ford] under the dang bus." According to the report, the said account also listed a fake website that used Reade's full name.
In yet another instance, Reade claimed the home address of a family member was exposed online and that person started receiving "creepy" calls Friday night, four of them coming in a span of 30 minutes from an unknown number. Fox News obtained two voice messages, where a caller appeared to be seeking to speak with Reade while posing as a journalist.
"Hi Ms Reade, this is Dave Johnson from the Observer, a small New York newspaper," the voice said, before breaking into laughter and later saying "Jeffrey Epstein didn't kill himself" and "Trump 2020."
In the second voice message, the caller once again introduced himself as "Dave Johnson with the Observer."
"I would really love, I'd really appreciate a call back so we can discuss your new powerful allegation against Vice President Biden," the caller continued. "I think you're setting a tone and underscoring a double standard put forth by the Me Too movement, so I'd really appreciate it if you could just call me back, give me a couple of quick questions."
Beyond phone calls, Reade is also receiving a barrage of threatening messages. One email obtained by Fox News saw someone named "Linda Dubois" calling Reade a "f---ing whore" and a "disgrace to womanhood" for coming forward with her sexual assault allegations against the Democratic presumptive nominee.
"You are a rip-roaring b---h and the great majority of Americans don’t believe you anyhow... I hope you drop dead," the person wrote. That said, some prominent Biden supporters are also targeting Reade.
Jon Cooper, a former chair of the Democratic Coalition, wondered if Reade "was driven by malicious motives."
"This is an example [of] what I am dealing with in addition to the threats and harassment online," Reade tweeted about Cooper.
"This is something that really has to stop and I'm just wondering where this is coming from," Reade told Fox News. "Are these just fanatic supporters? And if so, what does that say about our Democratic voters? Why are they targeting me when the party line is supposed to be allowing people to be safe? Why are they targeting my family and myself and making my family frightened?"
"It creates barriers for survivors to want to come forward and talk about difficult things that have happened," she continued. "And in my case, talking about how Joe Biden sexually harassed and sexually assaulted me is very excruciating and enough by itself, but then to be targeted and harassed and have my whole family targeted and harassed online by people that call themselves his supporters is not only just upsetting, it's frightening."
Biden addressed the 1993 allegations made by Reade during an appearance on MSNBC Friday. According to him, the sexual harassment and assault claimed by her "never happened."