Biden says he doesn't remember Tara Reade, people who believe her probably shouldn't vote for him

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said overnight that he doesn’t remember Tara Reade, a former Senate staffer who has accused him of sexual assault and that people who believe her claim shouldn’t vote for him. 

"Well, to be honest with you, I don’t,” Biden said when asked Thursday night on MSNBC whether he remembers Reade, who worked for him in Congress for about a year, in 1992-1993.

Reade in March made public the allegation that Biden, as a senator in 1993, sexually assaulted her in a hallway in the Capitol Hill complex. 

Biden also repeated his statement that the incident never happened but said those who believe it didn't probably shouldn't vote for him.

“If they believe Tara Reade, they probably shouldn't vote for me, he said on MSNBC. "I wouldn't vote for me if I believed Tara Reade."

Biden critics also argued that he seemed to struggle earlier Thursday with facts and messaging during a virtual roundtable discussion with several governors.

"We're ... in the middle of a pandemic that has cost us more than 85,000 jobs as of today," he said. "Lives of millions of people. Millions of people. Millions of jobs. You know, and we're in a position where, you know we just got new unemployment insurance, this morning, uh, numbers – 36.5 million claims since this crisis began."

The total number of deaths worldwide as of Friday was 304,835. The most recent federal report is that the U.S. has lost roughly 20.5 million jobs.