Biden doesn’t want Senate records opened due to ‘speeches I’ve made’

Joe Biden’s comment that says he doesn’t want to open up his Senate records, in part, because of “speeches I’ve made” has attracted the attention of Republicans and President Trump’s reelection campaign.

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee’s statement came on MSNBC Friday morning as he denied a sexual assault allegation from his former Senate aide Tara Reade.

The specific quote was highlighted on Twitter by Andrew Clark, the rapid response director of President Trump’s reelection campaign.

“What’s Biden hidin’?” wrote former Breitbart editor Raheem Kassam.

Kimberly Guilfoyle, a Trump campaign adviser and girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr., also noted her concern.

“Americans [deserve] to know the truth about what happened between Tara Reade and Joe Biden. But they also deserve to know what else Joe Biden is hiding!” the former Fox News host wrote on Twitter.

Biden’s reference to speeches came as he explained why he would not ask the University of Delaware to review records that it holds from his 36 years in the Senate in the interest of transparency over the Reade allegations.

“There’s a lot of things — of speeches I’ve made, positions I’ve taken, interviews that I did overseas with people — all of those things related to my job. And the idea that they would all be made public … while I was running for public office, they can be really taken out of context,” Biden said. “For example, when I go, when I met with Putin or when I met with whomever.”

The former vice president has had his share of political trouble because of speeches in the past.

Biden ran for president in 1988 but dropped out due to a plagiarism scandal. He was exposed for using without credit lines from British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock in one of his speeches.

Speeches also have been problematic for politicians when private remarks to elite supporters or patrons clash with their public persona. Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, faced calls to release private paid speeches to Goldman Sachs.

Biden insisted in his TV appearance that the University of Delaware should not review his records because they would not contain any information about Reade’s alleged 1993 assault. He said personnel files would only be held by the National Archives.

“There are no personnel records in the Biden papers at the university,” Biden said.

Source: Read Full Article