周二，随着前副总统面临性侵犯指控，越来越多的民主党人表示支持民主党总统候选人乔·拜登，史黛西·艾布拉姆斯也加入其中。

“我相信乔·拜登，”艾布拉姆斯在接受美国有线电视新闻网《唐·莱蒙》采访时说。“我认识乔·拜登，我认为他说的是实话，但这并没有发生。”

这一指控是由拜登的前国会助理塔拉·里德提出的，他指责拜登在1993年试图将一个运动包送到他的参议院办公室时对她进行了数字渗透。去年4月，拜登宣布竞选总统后，里德是少数几个对拜登在之前的互动中触碰肩膀或嗅头发的方式表示不满的女性之一。但里德在今年早些时候补充了她之前的指控，称让她最不舒服的互动实际上走得更远了。

3月12日，乔·拜登在特拉华州的威尔明顿谈到了冠状病毒的爆发。到目前为止，他还没有对一名前参议院助理的性侵犯指控发表评论。

拜登的竞选一再否认里德的指控。正在…一些政府官员呼吁对这一事件进行调查，大多数人都为拜登辩护。纽约州参议员柯尔斯顿·吉利布兰德在2018年要求明尼苏达州参议员艾尔·弗兰肯辞职，因为他面临多项性行为不端的指控。在周二录制的消息中说道她也支持拜登，并相信他对里德的指控是无辜的。

艾布拉姆斯在2018年呼吁对当时的最高法院提名人布雷特·卡瓦纳进行性侵犯调查，他说拜登的情况不同，因为里德的指控被处理的方式不同。

亚伯拉罕谈到对卡瓦诺的指控时说:“人们急于推进对话，所以没有进行任何调查。”她还补充说，她相信最近的一份报告这 纽约时报为副总统辩护。“我认识乔·拜登，我认为他说的是实话，但这并没有发生。”

密歇根州州长格雷琴·惠特莫——和亚伯拉罕一样，被传言将考虑成为拜登的竞选搭档——还没有公开评论里德的指控，也没有回应新闻周刊请及时发表评论。惠特默过去一直是性侵犯幸存者的代言人，并分享了自己的经历性侵犯史2013年首次公开。

在周二早些时候接受前劳工部长罗伯特·赖克的采访时，艾布拉姆斯热情洋溢地谈到了拜登在妇女问题上的立场，他说，“我知道他关心妇女的需求。”尽管赖克没有就里德的指控向艾布拉姆斯提问，但他确实询问了艾布拉姆斯对记者政治提问的坦诚回应。当被问及为什么她对担任拜登副总统的兴趣如此开放时，艾布拉姆斯说，如果选民会生她的气，她希望他们“出于正确的原因”生气

“我在密西西比州长大，我知道有时候政客们会告诉你他们认为你想听的话，如果他们根本不想听你的话，我已经在诚实上建立了我的声誉和工作，”亚伯拉罕告诉赖克。“我尽量做到坦率和彻底，因为我不想让任何人质疑我的意思和意图。”

STACEY ABRAMS SAYS 'I BELIEVE JOE BIDEN' AS HE STAYS SILENT ON SEXUAL ASSAULT ALLEGATION AND VP TALK HEATS UP

Stacey Abrams joined a growing list of Democrats Tuesday who have expressed support for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden as the former vice president faces a sexual assault allegation.

"I believe Joe Biden," Abrams said during an interview with CNN's Don Lemon. "I know Joe Biden, and I think that he is telling the truth and that this did not happen."

The allegation was made by Tara Reade, a former congressional aide to Biden who has accused him of digitally penetrating her while she was trying to deliver a gym bag to his Senate office in 1993. After Biden announced his campaign for president last April, Reade was among the handful of women who expressed discomfort at the ways in which Biden had touched their shoulders or sniffed their hair during previous interactions. But Reade added to her prior allegations earlier this year, saying the interaction that made her most uncomfortable had actually gone much further.

Joe Biden speaks in Wilmington, Delaware, on March 12 about the coronavirus outbreak. He has so far not commented on a sexual assault allegation from a former Senate aide.

Biden's campaign has repeatedly denied Reade's allegation. While some government figures have called for investigations into the incident, most have jumped to Biden's defense. New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who called for the resignation of Minnesota Senator Al Franken in 2018 as he was facing multiple sexual misconduct allegations, said in a recorded message Tuesday that she too supported Biden and believes he is innocent of Reade's charges.

Abrams, who in 2018 called for a sexual assault investigation into then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, said the situation with Biden was different because of the way Reade's allegation had been handled.

"There was a rush to move the conversation forward so that no investigation was conducted," Abrams said of the allegations against Kavanaugh, adding that she believed a recent report by The New York Times vindicated the vice president. "I know Joe Biden, and I think that he is telling the truth and that this did not happen."

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer—who, like Abrams, is rumored to be in consideration for Biden's running mate—has not yet commented publicly on Reade's allegation and did not respond to Newsweek's request for comment in time for publication. Whitmer has been a vocal advocate for sexual assault survivors in the past and shared her own history with sexual assault for the first time publicly in 2013.

During an interview earlier Tuesday with former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, Abrams spoke of Biden's stance on women's issues in glowing terms, saying, "I know that he cares about the needs of women." Though Reich did not question Abrams about Reade's allegation, he did ask about the candid way in which Abrams had responded to political queries from reporters. Asked why she was so open about her interest in serving as Biden's vice president, Abrams said that if voters were going to be angry with her, she wanted them to be angry "for the right reasons."

"I grew up in Mississippi knowing that sometimes politicians tell you what they think you want to hear, if they bother listening to you at all, and I've built my reputation and my work on being honest," Abrams told Reich. "I try to be as candid and thorough as possible, because I don't want anyone to question what I meant and what I intend."