Biden denies sexual assault allegations from 1993

Each Friday, we highlight a presidential candidate's key campaign staffer.

Chris Carr is a Republican staffer with experience in political organizing. Carr graduated with a bachelor’s degree from McNeese State University.

Previous campaign work:

2014 Garret Graves (R-La.) U.S. House campaign, consultant
2012 Mitt Romney presidential campaign, Nevada state director
2006 John Ensign (R-Nev.) U.S. Senate campaign, campaign manager
2003 Dan Kyle Louisiana insurance commissioner campaign, campaign manager
2000 Donna Mayeux mayoral campaign in Baton Rouge, campaign manager
1995 Quentin Dastugue (R-La.) gubernatorial campaign, campaign manager
1994 Jim Gibbon (R-Nev.) gubernatorial campaign, deputy campaign manager
1992 George H. W. Bush presidential campaign, Nevada state director

Other experience:

2016: Republican National Committee, political director
2012-2014: Engage Nevada, founder and consultant
2011-2012: Republican National Committee, western regional political director
2010: National Republican Congressional Committee, western regional political director
2007-2008: Republican National Committee, Northwest political director
2004: Nevada Victory Campaign and Nevada State Republican Party, executive director

Notable Quote of the Day

“We may have forgotten the significance of recessions in part because the last three presidents (Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton) all won a second term after avoiding a recession in the latter half of their first. That allowed each of them to point to improving economic conditions and to do so plausibly and persuasively. …

At the time of Obama's re-election in 2012, it was often said that no president had been re-elected with unemployment as high as it (still) was in that year. Statistically, that was true, but the sense of upward trajectory, reflected in crucial consumer confidence numbers that fall, buoyed the incumbent.

There were signs this week that Trump is preparing to adopt a similar strategy. In this formulation, instead of downplaying the negative, the president would be cast as the leader most equipped and best positioned to turn things around.”

– Ron Elving, NPR senior editor and correspondent

Election Updates

Joe Biden denied allegations that he had sexually harassed or assaulted a former Senate aide, Tara Reade, in 1993. In a Medium post on Friday, he discussed his pride in the Violence Against Women Act and said that women should be heard when they bring forward allegations. Biden said none of his other former staffers have corroborated Reade’s story and that there is no record of her filing a complaint against him that year, as she has said. Biden has requested the Secretary of the Senate ask the National Archives to identify and make public any such complaint. He did not name Reade directly in the article.
Biden further discussed the allegations in an interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Friday.
Donald Trump is participating in a virtual town hall on Fox News Channel on Sunday. Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum are moderating the event.
Trump will begin a seven-figure nationwide ad campaign on Sunday focused on his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. A second round of anti-Biden ads will be released later.

What We’re Reading

The Economist: We spent the lockdown sorting American voters into 380,000 distinct groups
FiveThirtyEight: Why Biden Probably Won’t Announce His Running Mate For Months
New York Magazine: Will Candidates for Biden’s VP Shortlist Defend Him From Reade Allegations?

Flashback: May 1, 2016

Bernie Sanders predicted the 2016 Democratic National Convention would be contested. “[Hillary Clinton] will need superdelegates to take her over the top at the convention in Philadelphia,” he said.