Joe Biden Friday insisted he is sorry for the treatment Anita Hill received during the Senate confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in 1991, and that he wishes there could have been a better way to conduct the proceedings.
"I'm not going to judge whether or not it was appropriate, whether she thought it was sufficient," the former vice president, who announced his 2020 campaign for the Democratic nomination Thursday, told ABC's "The View." "I said privately what I said publicly. I'm sorry she was treated the way she was treated...I did everything in my power to do what I thought was within the rules to be able to stop things."
Hill told The New York Times Thursday she "cannot be satisfied" with Biden's apology.
"When we got through that God awful experience, she's one of the reasons why we have the 'me too' movement," said Biden, adding that he believed her testimony. "She's one of the reasons why I was able to finish the Violence Against Women Act. She was the reason why there was a Judiciary Committee with women on it."
Biden added that he also didn't think he treated her badly personally and that he took on people who were opposing her.
"What I couldn't figure out how to do, and we still haven't figured it out, how do you stop people from asking inflammatory questions?" said Biden. "How do you stop the character assassinations? There was a full-blown attack on her in order to get the defense for Clarence Thomas. No woman or any victim of harassment shoulder be put through that circumstance in public hearings."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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