Pressure is mounting on Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden to personally respond to a sexual assault allegation made by a former Senate aide — despite a strong denial issued by his campaign.
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A 56-year-old former aide claims that the assault took place in 1993, when she was a 29-year-old staff assistant in the office of Mr. Biden, then a U.S. Senator from Delaware.
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Kate Bedingfield, Mr. Biden’s deputy campaign manager and communications director, has issued a statement dismissing the allegation but there has been no comment so far from the 77-year-old former Vice-President himself.
“Vice President Biden has dedicated his public life to changing the culture and the laws around violence against women,” Ms. Bedingfield said in a statement.
“What is clear about this claim: it is untrue,” she said. “This absolutely did not happen.”
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President Donald Trump’s campaign manager Brad Parscale has flooded his Twitter feed with mocking references to the former aide’s allegation, ignoring the string of accusations made by women against his own candidate.
According to the former aide, the assault took place in August 1993 in a hallway on Capitol Hill.
“We were alone, and it was the strangest thing,” she said in an interview. “There was no, like, exchange, really, he just had me up against the wall.
The allegations have led some supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders, who dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination and endorsed Mr. Biden, to call on the former V-P to end his White House bid.