In a lengthy Washington Post interview with Anita Hill and five female Democratic lawmakers who supported her during the historic confirmation hearing for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas in 1991, Hill criticized former Vice President Joe Biden’s recent apology regarding how he and the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee handled her allegations that Thomas sexually harassed her.
In her remarks, published late Wednesday, Hill said Biden’s new mea culpas don’t really take “ownership of his role in what happened.” He and other lawmakers should have shown “leadership” at the time, she added, “And they did just the opposite.”
Hill, who is now a professor of legal history and public policy at Brandeis University, testified in 1991—in front of a Judiciary Committee comprised of only white men—that Thomas sexually harassed her when he worked as her supervisor at both the U.S. Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Biden—who has long been criticized by Hill and several others for how he handled the situation as then-chairman of the Judiciary Committee—declined to call three women who had been subpoenaed to provide testimonies about similar behavior by Thomas that they had experienced or witnessed.
At Glamour magazine’s Women of the Year event last week, Biden was asked how he might have handled the situation differently, and what he wants to say to Hill about it now. He said, in part:
“He said, ‘I am sorry if she felt she didn’t get a fair hearing.’ That’s sort of an ‘I’m sorry if you were offended,'” Hill told the Post. She said that while “some part of it” was an admission that he could have done better, ultimately she wants to hear Biden fully take “responsibility” for his role in how it played out—Thomas was ultimately confirmed 52-48, and remains on the court today.
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