Pelosi tells reporter she doesn’t need a lecture on Biden, Kavanaugh comparison

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told a reporter that she doesn’t “need a lecture or a speech” comparing the treatment of sexual assault allegations against former Vice President Joe Biden and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Washington Examiner reporter Kerry Picket asked Pelosi at a press conference how “Democrats square with the idea that they’re essentially standing by Biden but used a comparatively different standard with Justice Kavanaugh when you demanded an investigation against Kavanaugh when a similar allegation came out against him.” 

“I respect your question, and I don’t need a lecture or a speech,” Pelosi responded.

“I have a complete respect for the whole ‘MeToo’ movement,” she added. “I have four daughters and one son. And there’s a lot of excitement around the idea that women will be heard and be able to be listened to.”  

Q: “How do Democrats square they’re essentially standing by Biden but they’re using a comparatively different standard with Kavanaugh when you demanded an investigation on Justice Kavanaugh–?”

Pelosi: “I respect your question and I don’t need a lecture or a speech.” pic.twitter.com/RRzfiiMEiK

— The Hill (@thehill) April 30, 2020

“There is also due process, and the fact that Joe Biden is Joe Biden,” the Speaker later added. “There’s been statements from his campaign — not his campaign but his former employees who ran his offices and the rest, that there was never any record of this, there was never any record, and that nobody ever came forward or nobody came forward to say something about it apart from the principle involved.”

The comments come after Pelosi told CNN earlier Thursday that she was “satisfied with how [Biden] has responded.”

Tara Reade, a former Senate aide, said last month that Biden sexually assaulted her in a secluded part of Capitol Hill in 1993 when he was a Delaware senator. 

A number of people including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have claimed there is a double standard in the way Democrats and the media have responded to and covered the accusations against Biden and those leveled against Kavanaugh before he was confirmed to the Supreme Court.

Biden has yet to be asked about the allegations, which his campaign denied in a statement on March 28. 

Reade was one of several women who came forward last year to say that Biden’s public touching had made her uncomfortable. He later said he would adjust his behavior.

This week, Reade’s former neighbor said she recalled Reade telling her about the alleged assault at the time. Reade’s brother also previously said that she told him that Biden “had his hand under her clothes at some point.”

Reade has said that she confronted Biden’s aides, but the aides Reade listed have gone on the record to say that they were never confronted about the allegation. She also says she filed a complaint with the human resources office in the Senate about the allegations of inappropriate touching. Media outlets, however, have not been able to track down the complaint.

Reade said she believes the complaint is in Biden’s archives at the University of Delaware, which is currently not releasing the former vice president’s records.