While delivering a speech about sexual harassment in Iowa, Anita Hill said it was too late for Joe Biden to apologize for his treatment of her during Justice Clarence Thomas’s confirmation.
Hill spoke at the University of Iowa, where a student asked her opinion about caucusing for Biden. The student said he was leaning toward supporting Biden, but wanted to hear her perspective on the former vice president given his role in dismissing her claims of sexual harassment during Thomas’s confirmation.
“The statute of limitations for his apology is up,” Hill told the student after being asked why Biden wouldn’t admit wrongdoing.
She added, “Here is what I want now … What are you going to do about it? What are you going to do today? Will you promise as leader of this country … would you promise to use all of your energy to address the problem as it happened and to prevent it from happening to another generation? That’s what I want to hear. And I not only want to hear from him, I want to hear from every one of them who want to be the leader of this country.”
Hill admitted that she has been criticized by some for not forgiving Biden as he could be the Democratic candidate 2020, saying, “I was criticized because I didn’t immediately open my arms and embrace him [and say], ‘OK, I forgive you.’ One of the reasons I didn’t was because I didn’t think it was enough.”
Biden, 77, was the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman during Thomas’s confirmation. Hill came forward with accusations of sexual harassment against Thomas that she claimed she experienced while working for him. Thomas called his treatment a “high-tech lynching” because he was a black conservative. Biden’s leadership throughout the confirmation has been criticized by those who believe he was overly dismissive of Hill’s accusations.
Hill may not be willing to forgive Biden, but she did say she would vote for him if he were the Democratic nominee facing President Trump.
