Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez dismissed calls to search Joe Biden's University of Delaware Senate archive for evidence of Tara Reade's sexual-assault allegation, saying there is "nothing there."
"When you ask the University of Delaware to take a look at something, you're asking them to look for something that doesn't exist, and the fact of the matter is that the president of the United States, the former president Barack Obama, conducted an exhaustive search," Perez said Sunday on ABC's This Week. "Joe Biden has been an open book."
The New York Times editorial board on Friday called on the DNC to form an "unbiased, apolitical panel" to investigate Biden's Senate papers, saying "the American people deserve at least the confidence that [Biden], and the Democratic Party, have made every effort to bring the truth to light."
The Biden campaign previously said an April 12 Times investigation of Reade's accusation concluded that the alleged sexual assault did not occur. The paper later challenged the campaign talking points, saying, "Our investigation made no conclusion either way."
Biden donated his Senate records to the University of Delaware in 2011 with the stipulation that the archive could not be released until two years after he left public office. The agreement was later updated so that the records would not be released until after Biden leaves public life.
Biden repeatedly rejected calls to release the archives during an interview with MSNBC's Morning Joe anchor Mika Brzezinski.
"There are no personnel records in the Biden papers at the university," Biden said.
Perez compared Biden's Senate archive with the "Hillary emails" on Sunday, saying any evidence of a sexual assault would have surfaced during the Obama campaign's vetting of the former vice president.
"I'm very familiar with [the] vice presidential vetting process. They look at everything about you. They looked at the entire history of Joe Biden, his entire career," Perez said. "I'll tell you, if Barack Obama had any indication that there was an issue, Barack Obama would not have had him as his vice president. Barack Obama trusted Joe Biden. I trust Joe Biden."