Joe Biden denies assault allegation: 'They aren’t true. This never happened'

Joe Biden has issued a statement, denying the allegation that he sexually assaulted Tara Reade, a former Senate aide that worked in his office 27 years ago. 

In the statement, Biden flatly says the allegation is not true, and that “This never happened.” He goes on to state that women making such allegations “deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and when they step forward they should be heard, not silenced. The second is that their stories should be subject to appropriate inquiry and scrutiny,” and that:

There is a clear, critical part of this story that can be verified. The former staffer has said she filed a complaint back in 1993. [...]

There is only one place a complaint of this kind could be – the National Archives. The National Archives is where the records are kept at what was then called the Office of Fair Employment Practices. I am requesting that the Secretary of the Senate ask the Archives to identify any record of the complaint she alleges she filed and make available to the press any such document. If there was ever any such complaint, the record will be there.

Biden also appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Friday morning to reiterate his denial, and if there are any such complaints, “put them out.” He also said that he has never had anyone sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement). Biden says that in the end, “The truth matters.”