Tara Reade, a US citizen, writer, and ex-assistant to Joe Biden, who has recently arrived in Russia, told Sputnik she no longer feels safe in Biden's America, adding that many Americans are ready to follow in her footsteps.
Tara Reade, a former Senate staffer, came forward in April 2020 and filed a criminal complaint against then-presumptive Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden, accusing him of sexual assault in 1993. Even though some Democratic congresswomen said they believe her, not only were her claims downplayed by the US mainstream press, but she was also subjected to smears, a criminal probe, and intimidation.
After Biden's 2024 re-election announcement, Reade reiterated her accusations and expressed willingness to testify in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives. However, in early May, Tara released a cryptic message saying that if something happens to her, all roads would lead to Biden. Reade opted to come to Russia to protect her life.
"I'm still kind of in a daze a bit but I feel very good," Reade told Sputnik. "I feel very surrounded by protection and safety. And I just really so appreciate Maria [Butina] and everyone who's been giving me that at a time when it's been very difficult to know if I'm safe or not. I just didn't want to walk home and walk into a cage or be killed, which is basically my two choices. [The decision to go to Russia] was very difficult. I'm not an impulsive person. I really take my time and sort of analyze data points. And from what I could see based on the cases and based on what was happening and sort of the push for them to not want me to testify, I felt that while this election is gearing up and there's so much at stake, I'm almost better off here and just being safe. My dream is to live in both places, but it may be that I only live in this place and that's okay."
On May 30, Member of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs Maria Butina, who herself fell victim to the US punitive machine, promised to discuss the possibility of granting Russian citizenship to Reade and ask Russian President Vladimir Putin to fast track her citizenship request.
Tara Reade is not the only American truth-seeker who has come to Russia in order to evade political persecution from the US authorities. Earlier, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden found refuge in the Russian Federation after revealing a US global spying program which targeted American citizens in sharp violation of the US Constitution. In September 2022, Vladimir Putin signed a decree granting Russian citizenship to Edward. He is now a full-fledged citizen of Russia.
As per Reade, there are a lot of people in the US who feel unsafe. Her message to them is to take action to protect themselves and their families "and to really look at who you're voting for."
"We need systemic change. So participate in that process and try to take command of your democracy if you want a democracy, because right now it's in disarray," Reade said, addressing her fellow Americans. "And that's the problem. And as far as like going to another safe haven, I mean, there are many Americans here, and I don't want to out a bunch of Americans, but there are people here that are coming to Russia - much like back in the day when Soviet Union people defected over to the US - now you have the opposite. Now you have US and European citizens looking for safe haven here. And luckily, the Kremlin is accommodating. So we're lucky."
What struck Reade the most after she revealed her story to the American people is that she was denied support from the Democratic Party, which she had backed for years. She sent requests to numerous prominent Democrats, such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren, but to no avail. As she revealed to Sputnik in 2021, it was a betrayal on a level she could not even describe. While American lawmakers and government officials are meant to serve the people, some of them choose to serve their own vested interests, according to her.
"I've examined that," Reade said. "I really think it's greed. It's one word. It's greed. It's like they can never have enough power and money. And if you notice that many of our members of Congress are multimillionaires and they went in with nothing. And how did that happen? Because their salaries were only $100,000 a year. You look at Nancy Pelosi, you look at Mitch McConnell, you look at Joe Biden and you look at [Barack] Obama, even they're multimillionaires. And they were supposed to be public servants. They were supposed to be helping the people. And in America, our Constitution was all about the representatives going doing public service and then going back to their farms or their businesses. But it wasn't meant to be a lifelong endeavor where they rake in millions of dollars."
“I’m still kind of in a daze a bit but I feel very good,” Reade told Sputnik, a Russian press outlet supportive of President Vladimir Putin, while sitting with Maria Butina, a convicted Russian agent jailed in the US but now a member of parliament in Russia.
“I feel very surrounded by protection and safety,” Reade said on Tuesday.
Now 59, Reade was a staffer for Biden when he was a US senator from Delaware.
In 2020, as Biden ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, she claimed that in 1993, in a Senate corridor, he pushed her against a wall and assaulted her. Biden repeatedly denied the accusation.
At her press appearance in Russia, Reade was described as a “writer and publicist and former aide to Joe Biden”.
Sitting next to Butina, Reade said: “I just really so appreciate Maria and everyone who’s been giving me [protection] at a time when it’s been very difficult to know if I’m safe or not.
“I just didn’t want to walk home and walk into a cage or be killed, which is basically my two choices.”
Reade recently considered testifying before US House Republicans seeking to use committees to attack Biden and his family.
The decision to defect to Russia, she told Sputnik, “was very difficult. I’m not an impulsive person. I really take my time and sort of analyse data points.
“And from what I could see based on the cases and based on what was happening and sort of the push for them to not want me to testify, I felt that while [the 2024] election is gearing up and there’s so much at stake, I’m almost better off here and just being safe. My dream is to live in both places, but it may be that I only live in this place and that’s OK.”
Biden is running for re-election. As president, he has helped maintain international support for Ukraine as it fights invading Russian forces.
Reade said: “To my Russian brothers and sisters, I’m sorry right now that American elites are choosing to have such an aggressive stance. Just know that most American citizens do want to be friendsand hope that we can have unity again.
“I am enjoying my time in Moscow, and I feel very at home.”
Biden sex assault accuser Tara Reade asks for Russian citizenship
Tara Reade, who worked in now-President Biden's congressional office for a short period in 1993, said she wanted to stay in Russia after a Republican lawmaker told her she was in physical danger.
Reade, 59, said in an interview streamed by the Sputnik media group — a Russian press outlet — that she'd arrived in Russia as a vacationer.
"When I got off the plane in Moscow, for the first time in a very long time, I felt safe. And I felt heard and felt respected," she said. "I'm still kind of in a daze a bit, but I feel very good," she said. "I feel very surrounded by protection and safety."
Reade sparked headlines in early 2020 by claiming in a podcast that Mr. Biden, who was a senator at the time, sexually assaulted her in a Capitol Hill corridor in August 1993, when she was 29.
Her accusation came just as Mr. Biden was ramping up his campaign against incumbent President Donald Trump, who himself has faced accusations of sexual abuse and rape.
"It is not true. I'm saying unequivocally it never, never happened," he said.
Tara Reade posing for a photo during an April 2019 interview with The Associated Press in Nevada City, Calif.AP Photo / Donald Thompson
Reade said she filed a complaint after the alleged incident, but no record of it has been found, and it's not clear if her allegations have ever been formally investigated.
A 1996 court document says her ex-husband mentioned that she'd complained of sexual harassment while working in Mr. Biden's office.
Reade, who called herself a geopolitical analyst, said in the Sputnik interview that after making her allegations public in 2020, she was threatened with prison, her life was threatened, and she was called a Russian agent.
"I do not see Russia as an enemy, nor do many of my fellow American citizens," she said, adding that she had one "large" request.
Though she wants to hold on to her U.S. citizenship, she said she'd "like to apply for citizenship in Russia, from the president of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin. ... I do promise to be a good citizen."
Asked for comment about Reade's request, White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates responded Wednesday, "I won't attempt to speak for an aspiring Russian citizen, the convicted Russian spy who's sponsoring her or the foreign government with which she has chosen to align."
According to The Guardian, Reade said of Butina, "I just really so appreciate Maria and everyone who's been giving me [protection] at a time when it's been very difficult to know if I'm safe or not. I just didn't want to walk home and walk into a cage or be killed, which is basically my two choices."
