Podcast host who interviewed Biden accuser rips Joan Walsh for 'concern trolling' about assault allegation
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The podcast host who first interviewed the woman who accused former Vice President Joe Biden of sexual assault blasted The Nation national affairs correspondent and CNN contributor Joan Walsh over a piece she wrote about the allegation.
In March, progressive commentator Katie Halper spoke with Tara Reade, a former Biden staffer who alleged that she was assaulted by the then-senator in 1993 after previously going public last year about allegations of inappropriate touching.
But in a piece published by The Nation on Wednesday, Walsh appeared to suggest that Halper's interview was politically motivated.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The story originated on the left, just about three weeks ago, when diehard Bernie Sanders supporter Katie Halper hosted Reade on her podcast, and encouraged her to tell her story publicly for the first time in 27 years," Walsh wrote.
The CNN commentator, who acknowledged in the piece that she will support Biden in the general election despite him not being her first-choice candidate, went on to defend the delayed media coverage and concluded that based on the reporting from The New York Times and The Washington Post that Reade's allegation "doesn’t stand up to close scrutiny," adding that the "bullying by the left or right won’t change that."
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Halper blasted Walsh on social media for the characterization of her interview with Reade.
"Honestly, @joanwalsh, you've said some pretty rude things to & about me but this is really low," Halper reacted. "I'm a die-hard Bernie fan. And you're a die-hard Hillary fan, Warren fan, Bernie hater & Biden acceptor, which is fine. Just stop feigning objectivity & stop infantilizing Reade."
"I didn't 'encourage her.' She was trying to tell her story since Times Up refused to support her in telling it. They refused b/c, as they admitted to Reade and @ryangrim, her allegation was against Joe Biden. You & others can make up any excuse you'd like for why they didn't... but it's a moot point because they told Reade and Grim their reasons."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}She continued, "I understand this is uncomfortable bc Trump is an odious person who should not be president. But if people had listened to Reade in the first place, we wouldn't be in this decision... At least own your politics instead of concern trolling about the state of journalism and poor Tara Reade who you care about so much you'd like her to shut up and sit down."
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Walsh responded to Halper, asking, "'die-hard Bernie fan' is really low?"
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Halper shot back, "Will you ID as a die-hard Hillary and Warren fan? And avid disliker of Sanders? And if by 'encourage' you mean I let her speak on my show, then sure."
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The progressive podcast host later pointed to a piece Walsh wrote in 2018 with the headline, "The heart-wrenching trauma of Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh hearings" and the subhead, "It's difficult. It hurts. But women will keep telling our stories."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I liked you more when you wrote stuff like this," Halper told Walsh.
Reade initially stepped forward last year, when multiple women emerged claiming inappropriate touching by Biden. Reade, at the time, claimed Biden put his hands on her shoulders and rubbed his fingers up and down her neck, but the story got no traction aside from an article in a local newspaper.
In late March, Reade told a far more graphic account, with different and more serious details, raising the allegation to the level of sexual assault.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Reade's story first resurfaced in an article in The Intercept. Podcast host Katie Halper then interviewed Reade, who said that in 1993, a more senior member of Biden's staff asked her to bring the then senator his gym bag near the Capitol building, which led to the encounter in question.
"He greeted me, he remembered my name, and then we were alone. It was the strangest thing," Reade told Halper. "There was no like, exchange really. He just had me up against the wall."
Reade said she tried to share her story last year, but nobody listened to her. This past Thursday, she filed a criminal complaint against Biden with police in Washington, D.C.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE
The Biden campaign vehemently denied Reade's allegation.
"Women have a right to tell their story, and reporters have an obligation to rigorously vet those claims. We encourage them to do so, because these accusations are false," Kate Bedingfield, the deputy campaign manager and communications director for the Biden campaign, said in a statement to Fox News.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.