Joe Biden flatly denied a former Senate aide's allegation of sexual assault on Friday, saying «this never happened.» It was the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee's first public comment on an accusation of sexual assault by Tara Reade. Reade said on a podcast that in 1993, Biden penetrated her with his hand while in the U.S. Capitol complex, when she was a staff assistant in his Senate office. The allegation in late March expanded on here previous claims that Biden had harassed her.