On 24 April, a video of an anonymous 1993 call to CNN’s “Larry King Live” resurfaced, showing a woman sharing her daughter’s hardships stemmed from working under a “prominent senator” that were never addressed.
The caller appeared to be the mother of Tara Reade, a staffer for Joe Biden in 1993 at the Capitol, who filed a criminal complaint against the former vice president, claiming that she was sexually assaulted at the time by the presumptive Democratic nominee. The resurfaced video could substantiate Reade's allegations against Biden.
After the reappearance of the video, some hopeful Netizens called for the Democratic presidential hopeful to “drop out” the 2020 US election race.
Hashtag #DropOutBiden started trending on Twitter on Saturday in the United States, as users cited the video of Reade’s mother phoning in about her daughter’s sexual assault on the ‘Larry King Live’ show on CNN back in 1993.
“I mean the whole Tara Reade's mother calling #LarryKing does more than justify #DropOutBiden - if you think this is going to be a situation that gets better you're wrong. This is so much more tangible than even Hillary's Emails, and that was more than enough,” one user tweeted.
Some Twitterians suggested that it might be reasonable now, following the latest development, for former Democratic candidate Senator Bernie Sanders to resume his campaign, which was halted earlier this month.
“The fact that there’s even a #DropOutBiden hashtag trending in America is pretty tragic,” one user tweeted. “Are the corporate Dems living in another timeline? The planet can’t afford another four years of Trump. Biden needs to be removed and it’s only logical that Bernie is put in his place”.
In the meantime, Sanders’s aides have criticized the Democratic National Committee (DNC) for staying silent and not considering the criminal case filed against Biden for sexual assault.
“The video of Tara Reade's late mother calling into Larry King to blow the whistle about about Tara's sexual assault is being met with relative silence from a cadre of progressives right now and I want you all to know that I see you. We all do,” former Sanders senior adviser Winnie Wong tweeted.
Former Sanders press secretary, Briahna Joy Gray, tweeted: “It's a good time to note that Bernie's on the ballot”.
On 12 April, Reade filed a criminal complaint against Biden, accusing him of sexually assaulting her in 1993 when she was working for him at the Capitol.
The woman claimed that the Democratic candidate pushed her up against the wall in a Senate corridor and penetrated her with his fingers.
Biden campaign has denied Reade’s allegations.
On 8 April, Senator Bernie Sanders suspended his campaign for the Democratic nomination following a series of close defeats in the primaries, later announcing that he would endorse the campaign of Joe Biden.