Graham defends Biden against assault allegations, says ex-VP should release Senate records

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham. R-S.C., on Friday night defended presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden against claims that he sexually assaulted a staffer in 1993 while serving in the U.S. Senate.

"The Joe Biden I know, I've never seen anything [or] believed that he would do anything like this until you convince me otherwise," Graham said on "Hannity."

Graham went on to say Biden should release Senate personnel records that could shed light on the accusation against him.

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Earlier Friday, Biden denied the allegations made against him by former Senate staffer Tara Reade, personally addressing the claims for the first time more than a month after she went public with the accusations.

"They aren’t true. This never happened," Biden said in a written statement put out by his campaign.

Biden also appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" to discuss the allegations, during which he was asked about the possibility of allowing a search of his senatorial papers at the University of Delaware, which are not public, for records pertaining to Reade.

"The material in the University of Delaware has no personnel files ... but it does have a lot of confidential conversations," with other officials, such as the president, Biden said.

Graham also addressed whether there was a "double standard" in terms of media attention given to sexual misconduct claims against Democrats and compared the allegations against Biden to those made against then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.

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"Is there a double standard? Of course," Graham said. "Do most Republicans understand what happened to Brett Kavanaugh was not about trying to right a wrong against Dr. Ford [but] was about trying to keep a seat open so they could fill it when they could beat Trump? I mean, they [Democrats] were dumb enough to say that."

Graham concluded by saying he hoped Reade would be "treated better" than women who made similar allegations against former President Bill Clinton during his presidency.

Fox News' Tyler Olson and Morgan Phillips contributed to this article.

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