After Harris made the remarks in question on April 2, 2019, three more women publicly accused Biden of having touched them inappropriately, made them uncomfortable, or made inappropriate remarks about their physical appearance.

A fourth woman, Tara Reade, alleged in March 2020 that Biden sexually assaulted her at an office in the U.S. Capitol, providing descriptions that some readers might find disturbing. Reade said that when she worked in his U.S. Senate office in 1993, Biden pushed her against a wall, subjected her to unwanted kissing, and digitally penetrated her. (Although Reade did not herself use the word “rape” to describe the latter allegation, digital penetration without consent is included in the definition of rape used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in its Uniform Crime Report. In that context, it is reasonable to state that Reade accused Biden of raping her).

Biden has vehemently denied Reade’s allegations, telling MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”: “It is not true. I’m saying, unequivocally, it never never happened…”

While Harris said plainly “I believe them” about those women who had, before April 2, 2019, accused Biden of inappropriate touching, the senator has not said the same about Reade’s rape allegation, and did not do so when asked about it. Speaking to the San Francisco Chronicle’s “It’s All Political” podcast, in April 2020, Harris said Reade had a right to be heard, and should face no repercussions for “telling her story,” but defended Biden’s record as “somebody who really has fought for women and empowerment of women and women’s equality and rights”:

This woman has a right to tell her story, and I believe that, and I believe Joe Biden believes that too. I’ve spent my whole career…fighting to give women a voice, and this brings up, I think, a bigger structural issue, frankly, which is that women must be able to speak without fear of retaliation…On the issue of Joe, I can only speak to the Joe Biden I know. He’s been a life-long fighter in terms of stopping violence against women. He has been the leader, I think really most people would agree, in the United States Senate on VAWA, the Violence Against Women Act.

So, you know, as I said, she has a right to tell her story, and she shouldn’t face any repercussions for that. But the Joe Biden I know is somebody who really has fought for women and empowerment of women and women’s equality and rights.

The Federalist’s claim, in its headline, which said that Harris had said she believed “Biden’s rape accusers,” was therefore false, both because Harris made her comments long before Reade accused Biden of rape, and because she is the only woman to have made that accusation. The Federalist later changed its headline to claim that Harris had said she believed “Biden’s sexual harassment accusers.”

However, as of Aug. 13, 2020, the article itself still stated that Harris “said last year that she believes the women who accused Biden of sexual assault.” This is equally misleading, since no woman had accused Biden of sexual assault when Harris made her remarks on April 2, 2019.