Tara Reade is a former aide to Joe Biden from his years in the Senate. In 2019, Reade made serious allegations against Biden that he sexually assaulted her in 1993 when he was a senator from Delaware.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Tara Reade (full name – Tara Reade Moulton) was born on Wednesday, February 26, 1964 (age 56 years; as of 2020) in Monterey County, California, United States. At the age of three months, Reade and her family moved out of California. She grew up in Wisconsin and Georgia. [1]Monterey County Weekly
Tara Reade (left as a child) With Her Mother Jeanette Altimus in 1966
Reade spent most of her childhood in Wisconsin where she did her formative schooling and pursued sports like skiing.
Tara Reade in Wisconsin in 1971
After her parents’ divorce, Tara Reade, along with her mother and brother Collin, moved to Athens, Georgia. [2]Twin Cities At the age of seventeen, she moved to California to pursue modeling and acting. [3]CNN Later, she moved to Washington where she was hired in 1992 for a low-level staff job for Joe Biden who was a senator from Delaware at the time. [4]Twin Cities
Tara Reade in Washington in 1992 or 1993
She also attended Pasadena City College where she studied Political Science before she took the job as a congressional intern in the office of U.S. Representative Leon Panetta. [5]Monterey County Weekly Meanwhile, she also worked for Santa Barbara County Supervisor Gloria Ochoa as a field manager in Ochoa’s campaign against Representative Michael Huffington. Reade worked as an aide to Joe Biden from December 1992 to August 1993. Then, she worked as a staff assistant for California State Senator Jack O’Connell.
Tara Reade, pictured in 1992
In 2004, Tara Reade graduated from Seattle University School of Law; however, later it was revealed that she never obtained the undergraduate degree required for law school admission. [6]The New York Times
Tara Reade as a Law Graduate in 2004
In the mid-2000s, she moved to the Monterey Bay area. In 2007, while claiming workplace discrimination and harassment, she filed a lawsuit against her employer, YWCA Monterey County. [7]Monterey County Weekly In the same year, she joined the nonprofit Animal Friends Rescue Project in Pacific Grove as executive director, where she worked until she was terminated in 2009. [8]Monterey County Weekly In 2009, she completed the 10-month training program Leadership Monterey Peninsula. In the early 2010s, she co-hosted Soul Vibes, a weekly radio show; aired on the now-defunct local station KNRY. Between 2010 and 2011, Reade worked as an education instructor at Hartnell College. In 2012, she filed for bankruptcy, and the list of firms she owed money includes Aladdin Bail Bonds in Salinas; Animal Hospital at the Crossroads, Central Coast Cardiology, Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, Cottage Vet Care, Credit Bureau of Monterey, Credit Consulting Services in Salinas, Grove Market, Hartnell College Parking Enforcement, Monterey Bay Urgent Care, Monterey County Revenue Division, and Oceanview Vet Hospital. [9]Monterey County Weekly
Family & Ethnicity
Tara Reade belongs to a white American family.
Parents & Siblings
Her late mother, Jeanette Altimus, was an artist on Cannery Row. [10]Monterey County Weekly
Tara Reade With Her Mother Jeanette Altimus, in 1994
Her father, Robert Reade Moulton, worked as a sportswriter for the Wausau Daily Herald in the 1960s before he took a public relations job with a defense contractor in Minnesota. [11]Twin Cities
Tara Reade’s Father Robert Reade Moulton
Both her parents died in 2016. [12]Star Tribune Her brother, Collin Moulton, is a stand-up comedian.
Tara Reade’s Brother Collin Moulton
She has a half-brother, Michael Enterline. [13]The New York Times
Tara Reade With Her Half Brother Michael Enterline, in 1989
Relationships, Husband & Children
During her stay in Washington, Reade met Ted Dronen. In a 2009 essay, she described Ted Dronen as –
a smiling 6’4” blonde Nordic-looking man” [14]Star Tribune
Later, they married in July 1994 and had a daughter that November. [15]Twin Cities
Tara Reade at her daughter’s school in Seattle, in 2001
Her ex-boyfriend, Cal Clements worked alongside her in the Cedar Shoals High School’s production of “Grease” in which Reade starred as Kenickie and Cal as Rizzo. [16]CNN
Abusive Childhood & Marriage
According to Reade, she had an abusive father; a fact that she told her husband who later abused her, too. While describing her physically and emotionally abusive father, once she wrote –
Thwarting my college dreams was the mild bit, the rejection and the physical assaults set the stage for how I would walk into the world.”
According to court records from 1996, her husband, Ted Dronen, abused Reade and their then-15-month-old daughter. Reade described many violent episodes with her husband including one that left her bruised. In 1996, she was granted a temporary restraining order against her husband, Dronen. [17]CNN Although Dronen denied her allegations that he didn’t care for their daughter, he acknowledged that he was violent with Tara Reade in February 1996. However, he refuted other violent incidents mentioned by Reade in her own testimony. According to Tara Reade; after changing her name to Alexandra McCabe, she fled from her ex-husband. [18]CNN She explained her experience with domestic violence by writing an essay in a local web-based publication, The Women’s International Perspective; the essay was published on February 13, 2009. [19]Monterey County Weekly
Working For Joe Biden & Sexual Assualt Allegations Against Him
In 1992, Tara Reade received a call to interview for a job with Biden. During an interview with AP that she gave in 2019, Reade recalled the instance when she was offered the job to work for Biden and said,
I just always wanted to work for Biden. Because at the time, he was the champion of women’s legislation, women’s rights legislation.”
Joe Biden in 1992
According to Reade, when she was interviewed by Biden’s executive assistant, Marianne Baker, Jow Biden walked in and smiled at her and said, “hire her.” In 2019, Tara Reade was one of several women who accused Biden of inappropriately touching, such as standing uncomfortably close, kisses on the head, and unwanted hugs. [20]The Guardian On April 4, 2019, she contacted a local newspaper in Grass Valley, California – The Union, and made allegations against Joe Biden that he had publicly stroked her neck, wrapped his fingers in her hair, and touched her in ways that made her uncomfortable when she worked in his U.S. Senate office. [21]The New York Times While talking about her stint working for Biden, she said that the senator’s office reduced her responsibilities after she refused to serve drinks at an even as Biden liked her legs. Later, when she felt pushed out, she left Biden’s office in August 1993. While talking about Biden’s inappropriate touching, she said,
He used to put his hand on my shoulder and run his finger up my neck,” Reade said. “I would just kind of freeze and wait for him to stop doing that.” [22]The Union
On March 25, 2020, Reade provided more details about her sexual assault by Biden. She said that in the spring of 1993 when she had gone to handover an athletic bag to Biden, he pushed her against a cold wall and started kissing her, and even digitally penetrated her. While recalling the incident, she said,
It happened at once. He’s talking to me and his hands are everywhere and everything is happening very quickly. He was kissing me and he said, very low, ‘Do you want to go somewhere else?’” [23]The New York Times
According to Reade when she pulled away, Biden stopped. Reade said,
He looked at me kind of almost puzzled or shocked. He said, ‘Come on, man, I heard you liked me.’ He pointed his finger at me and he just goes: ‘You’re nothing to me. Nothing.’ Then, he took my shoulders and said, ‘You’re OK, you’re fine.’” [24]The New York Times
Later, Biden denied sexually assaulting Tara Reade and said,
This never happened. While the details of these allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault are complicated, two things are not complicated. One is that women 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.”
On May 7, 2020, she was interviewed by Megyn Kelly on YouTube. In the interview, Reade gave more details about her sexual assault by Biden.
Controversies
- From 2014 to 2016, she volunteered for Pregnant Mare Rescue in Watsonville; however, she had to leave amid accusations of wrongdoing. [25]Monterey County Weekly
- For irregularities in filing Form 990s (filed by nonprofits) for three consecutive years, the status of her nonprofit Gracie’s Pet Food Pantry was revoked by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. [26]Monterey County Weekly
- After her initial complaints against Biden’s sexual assault were reported in The Union, a local California newspaper, Reade faced a wave of criticism and death threats. She was also touted that she was a Russian agent. [27]The New York Times
Facts/Trivia
- According to Reade, she was an accomplished skier and at the age of twelve, she qualified for the Junior Olympics team in downhill skiing in Wisconsin. [28]Twin Cities
- In an interview, Reade said that while growing up, she was a nature lover and fell in love with horseback riding. [29]CNN
Tara Reade Playing With a Horse
- Her acting aspirations led her to perform in the school theatre, community, and regional theatre. Tara Reade appeared as a dancer in the American biographical film, La Bamba (1987). [30]CNN She also did some radio and television commercials.
Tara Reade’s Dancing Footage
- Although she claimed that she scored an audition in New York for The Juilliard School’s exclusive acting program, the school declined to confirm whether she was selected for an audition. [31]Star Tribune
- Her friends describe her childhood as a kind, lively, and cheerful person who loved acting and animals. [32]CNN
- Before developing an interest in politics, she dreamt of being an Olympic skier and studying acting at Juilliard. [33]Twin Cities
- Reade had her local nonprofit, Gracie’s Pet Food Pantry for which she started a campaign, GoFundMe, in 2013.
- During her stint at Capitol Hill, she loved to peruse antique shops or enjoy a ballgame along with her friend Stacey Lentz who worked in North Dakota Senator Kent Conrad’s office.
- According to Reade, her mother was one of the few people she had confided in about Biden’s alleged sexual assault.
- According to her ex-husband, Dronen, while Reade was in the late stages of a pregnancy, her mother kicked her out of her house during a fall 1994 argument. [34]Star Tribune
- In October 2019, during the trial of a man convicted of assaulting his wife, Tara Reade testified as an expert witness in Monterey County Superior Court.
Tara Reade Testifying for the prosecution in a domestic violence case
- According to Savage, Reade’s ex-colleague, Reade left Biden’s office in August 2019 on health issues. Savage said,
Reade blamed her termination on her health issue — that she thought she was being discriminated against for her health issue.”
References
She got fired after two years from every job she had. I think she’s a fraud.