Actress-turned-activist Rose McGowen eviscerated her former “Charmed” co-star Alyssa Milano for her continued support for former Vice President Joe Biden amid a newly surfaced sexual assault accusation.
Milano, who was an outspoken advocate for the #MeToo movement and a celebrity endorser of the Democratic front-runner, addressed her “silence” on the 1993 assault allegation made Tara Reade, a former staffer for the then-senator who came forward with her assault claim last month.
“I had not publicly said anything about this- if you remember, it kind of took me a long time to say anything about Harvey [Weinstein] as well — because I believe that even though we should believe women… but that does not mean at the expense of giving men their due process and investigating situations,” Milano said during a radio interview on Monday. “It’s got to be fair in both directions.”
Milano then pointed to a report about how the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund chose not to take up Reade’s case as part of her reasoning to support Biden, although she didn’t disclose to radio host Andy Cohen that the reasoning behind the organization’s decision was because it did not want to jeopardize its nonprofit status while going after a presidential candidate.
“I just don’t feel comfortable throwing away a decent man that I’ve known for 15 years in this time of complete chaos without there being a thorough investigation and I’m sure that the mainstream media would be jumping all over this… if they found more evidence through their investigation. So I’m just sort of staying quiet about it,” Milano explained.
The “Charmed” actress, who was a vocal advocate against the Supreme Court nomination of Justice Brett Kavanaugh after he was accused of sexual misconduct, dismissed those calling her “hypocritical” by what Cohen called “Bernie Bros,” a term she agreed with.
“We’re destroying lives if we publicly don’t go through the right steps in order to find out if an accusation is credible or not,” Milano added.
McGowan, a victim of disgraced film mogul and convicted sexual predator Harvey Weinstein, blasted Milano for her inconsistent advocacy.
“You are a fraud,” McGowan reacted. “This is about holding the media accountable. You go after Trump & Kavanaugh saying Believe Victims, you are a lie. You have always been a lie. The corrupt DNC is in on the smear job of Tara Reade, so are you. SHAME.”
Tara Reade, an apparent supporter of Biden’s primary rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., came forward before — last year, when multiple women emerged claiming inappropriate touching by Biden. Reade, at the time, claimed Biden put his hands on her shoulders and rubbed his fingers up and down her neck, but was unable to gain traction on her story aside from an article in a local newspaper.
But in late March, Reade told a far more graphic account, with different and more serious details, raising the allegation to the level of sexual assault.
Reade’s story first resurfaced in an article in The Intercept. She then was interviewed by podcast host Katie Halper. There, Reade claimed that in 1993, she was asked by a more senior member of Biden’s staff to bring the then-senator his gym bag near the Capitol building, which led to the encounter in question.
“He greeted me, he remembered my name, and then we were alone. It was the strangest thing,” Reade told Halper. “There was no like, exchange really. He just had me up against the wall.”
Reade said that she was wearing “a business skirt,” but “wasn’t wearing stockings—it was a hot day.”
She continued: “His hands were on me and underneath my clothes, and he went down my skirt and then up inside it and he penetrated me with his fingers and he was kissing me at the same time and he was saying some things to me.”
Reade claimed Biden first asked if she wanted “to go somewhere else.”
“I pulled away, he got finished doing what he was doing,” Reade said. “He said: ‘Come on, man. I heard you liked me.’”
She said she felt that “everything shattered in that moment.” Reade went on to allege that Biden looked at her and said, “You’re nothing to me.”
Reade said she attempted to share her story last year, but no one listened to her.
The Biden campaign vehemently denied Reade’s allegation.
“Women have a right to tell their story, and reporters have an obligation to rigorously vet those claims. We encourage them to do so, because these accusations are false,” Kate Bedingfield, deputy campaign manager and communications director for the Biden campaign, said in a statement to Fox News.
*story by Fox News