Biden picks ex-senator accused of violent sex assault on waitress to help him find a female vice president
FORMER Vice President Joe Biden has picked an ex-senator previously accused of a violent sexual assault on a waitress to help him find a female vice president.
Connecticut Democrat Chris Dodd, 75, made the alleged assault during his three-decade-long tenure in the Senate.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti; Delaware Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester; and Cynthia Hogan, a Biden aide who assisted with President Barack Obama’s nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, have also been appointed to the Committee.
Dodd previously chaired the Senate Banking Committee and was a key figure during the passage of the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as ObamaCare.
He also served for six years as chairman and chief executive of the Motion Picture Association of America, a trade association representing major film studios, after retiring from politics in 2011.
The lengthy profile of Senator Ted Kennedy mentioned Dodd 14 times, mostly as someone with whom Kennedy socialized with at the Washington restaurant La Brasserie, which closed in 2005.
Michael Kelly described the alleged incident occurring at the restaurant on a late evening in 1985 when the senators were finishing up a private dinner.
"They are drunk. Their dates, two very young blondes, leave the table to go to the bathroom," Kelly explains.
Waitress Betty Loh, who served the foursome, is also said to have been told to leave the room.
The senators then allegedly request to then see another waitress, Carla Gaviglio, who is called for by Raymond Campet, the co-owner of La Brasserie.
"As Gaviglio enters the room, the six-foot-two, 225-plus-pound Kennedy grabs the five-foot-three, 103-pound waitress and throws her on the table," Kelly writes.
Kennedy then picks her up from the table and throws her on Dodd, who is sprawled in a chair.
Michael Kelly
"She lands on her back, scattering crystal, plates and cutlery and the lit candles. Several glasses and a crystal candlestick are broken.
"Kennedy then picks her up from the table and throws her on Dodd, who is sprawled in a chair."
With the petite waitress allegedly still on Dodd's lap, Kelly writes: "Kennedy jumps on top and begins rubbing his genital area against hers, supporting his weight on the arms of the chair.
"As he is doing this, Loh enters the room. She and Gaviglio both scream, drawing one or two dishwashers.
"Startled, Kennedy leaps up. He laughs. Bruised, shaken and angry over what she considered a sexual assault, Gaviglio runs from the room.
Kennedy, Dodd and their dates are said to have left shortly after.
What I saw was Senator Kennedy on top of Carla, who was on top of Senator Dodd’s lap ...
Betty Loh, as reported by Michael Kelly
Kelly says eyewitness Betty Loh recalled the incident to him when she walked into the room, saying: "What I saw was Senator Kennedy on top of Carla, who was on top of Senator Dodd’s lap, and the tablecloth was sort of slid off the table ’cause the table was knocked over—not completely, but just on Senator Dodd’s lap a little bit, and of course the glasses and the candlesticks were totally spilled and everything.
"And right when I walked in, Senator [Kennedy] jumped off … and he leaped up, composed himself and got up. And Carla jumped up and ran out of the room."
Kelly said he asked Donovan if he or the senator would like to comment on or deny reports of heavy drinking or unusual behavior but was told Kennedy would stick to his standard reply to never to comment on "this sort of endless gossip and speculation.”
Biden has found himself at the center of controversy earlier this month when former staff assistant Tara Reade and accused him of attacking her in the Senate corridor in 1993.
Biden has , insisting "it never happened."
Biden released a written statement and to address the accusations, saying: "They aren’t true. This never happened."
"I want to address allegations by a former staffer that I engaged in misconduct 27 years ago," he said in the statement.
"They aren’t true. This never happened.";
It was the first time Biden has weighed in directly on the allegations.
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