Tara Reade’s Updated Medium Post: All Material Edits

4/29/20 Corrections:
Reade made the new allegations public on March 24th, not the 26th
The “datemodified” in the source code indicates the most recent edit

5/8/20 Correction: Reade most recently shared her original post on March 15th, not in February

(Note: My goal is to make this article 100% reproducible and verifiable. All sources are public and can easily be checked.)

In April of 2019, Alexandra Tara Reade (formerly McCabe) wrote on Medium about her experience with Joe Biden. At this time, she was alleging inappropriate contact of a non-sexual nature – one of several women to come forward about Biden’s “handsy” behavior.

On March 24, 2020, Reade went public with a sexual assault allegation against Joe Biden. Given this was an addition to her prior account, her post on Medium underwent some level of scrutiny. To be absolutely clear: simply coming forward with new information is not “changing her story”. Abuse victims will often speak up about their experiences in different pieces. This is not abnormal.

However, retroactively editing prior statements IS changing her story. Upon inspection of the webpage’s source code, it appears Reade has done exactly that. On March 24th – the day she brought her new allegations against Biden – Reade edited her original post on Medium. The post maintained its April 2019 date, making the article look like her updates were part of the original. These updates added significant new information.

Source Code: The Article was Edited

Her Medium post can be found here. Opening the source code (a simple right-click in Chrome) allows us to view some basic metadata. Below is the segment of interest, with the relevant pieces bolded in red.

{"@context":"http:\u002F\u002Fschema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","image":["https:\u002F\u002Fmiro.medium.com\u002Fmax\u002F1200\u002F1*tjv0UwpefrXTe5YmcCXmrw@2x.jpeg"],"url":"https:\u002F\u002Fmedium.com\u002F@AlexandraTaraReade\u002Fa-girl-walks-into-the-senate-dd9ebdfce31b","dateCreated":"2019-04-06T18:56:32.009Z","datePublished":"2019-04-06T18:56:32.009Z","dateModified":"2020-03-24T22:18:47.379Z","headline":"A Girl Walks into the Senate… - Alexandra Tara Reade, J.D. - Medium","name":"A Girl Walks into the Senate… - Alexandra Tara Reade, J.D. - Medium"

In other words, the source code indicates that the article was edited as recently as March 24th.

Traditional internet archives (such as the Wayback Machine) do not have this article stored before March 26th, 2020. Normally, this would stop us from viewing any old versions of the article. However, The Union also posted Reade’s article in April of 2019. This allows us to compare the original post to Reade’s updated version.

The original, never modified version can be found here – published by The Union on April 17, 2019. Reade tweeted this article the very next day, and explicitly confirmed it was a correct accounting of her story a few days later. Reade continued to share the original as recently as March 15 – just 9 days before bringing her new allegations against Biden.

List of Edits

Original: https://www.theunion.com/opinion/columns/alexandra-tara-reade-a-girl-walks-into-the-senate/
Updated: https://medium.com/@AlexandraTaraReade/a-girl-walks-into-the-senate-dd9ebdfce31b

Below I have listed the segments of the article that were materially altered, roughly in order of importance (from most to least impactful).

Wording removed in the update will be red, italicized, and struck through
Wording added in the update will be red and bolded

• “But this is not only a story about sexual misconduct”
• “I am upset now and feel defensive. Again, somehow me talking about what happened, what Joe Biden did to me, is my fault. And I did not even tell the whole story…The small portion that did come out of what Joe Biden did to me resulted in me being bullied and threatened to silence.”
• “Maybe as women, we can speak up at the time and not lose our jobs or reputations if our boundaries are violated. Maybe these men can modify their behavior or at least let them be held accountable. There needs to be restorative justice for victims who lose their jobs due to sexual harassment and assault. Maybe we can start from there.”
• “Then, I went to Senate Personnel for help. No one helped me. I was moved into a solitary, windowless office and told to leave. I resigned or I would say, I was fired, or should I say, I was forced to resign. I was told to look for another job. No one would interview me on the Hill for any position.”
• “What started with promise and possibility, ended because some prominent Senator decided that he liked my legs and objectified me. I was sad and lost and moved on. My career on the Hill was over.”
• “I believe these gestures were not so much about “connection” but establishing dominance in the room and power over others.”
• “I was told that Senator Biden wanted me to “serve drinks at an event with some donors (all men) because he “liked my legs” and thought I was “pretty.” These “events” were often all older, wealthy males.”

(there are also a variety of immaterial changes to spelling and punctuation)

What this all means is up to you. But this much is clear: In the same day she accused Joe Biden of sexual assault, Tara Reade edited her previous statements to better match her new allegations.