Anita Hill pledged to work with Democratic nominee Joe Biden if he’s elected president to help victims of sexual harassment, gender violence, and discrimination.
“Notwithstanding all of his limitations in the past and the mistakes that he made in the past, notwithstanding those — at this point, between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, I think Joe Biden is the person who should be elected in November,” Hill told CNN.
Hill and Biden have shared a contentious history, dating back to when she accused Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment almost 30 years ago.
In 1991, Biden served as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee overseeing the confirmation hearing of Thomas. Hill, a key witness, testified that Thomas sexually harassed her when they worked together at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Thomas denied the allegations.
Hill, who is now a professor at Brandeis University, said her testimony forever altered her motivation to work toward change for victims.
“One of the impacts of 1991 was my desire not to really work with the government in any way,” Hill said. “I always said, I think I can be more effective as an outsider, as opposed to an insider. And now, I’m willing to evolve myself, to work for change inside.”
Biden faced scrutiny over the way he handled the hearings and has apologized for the way Hill was treated. The panel of all-male senators grilled her on her accusations at the time, calling into question intricate details and her personal character.
“I believed her story from the very beginning,” Biden told CNN. “I wish I could have protected her more. … I did get in shouting matches, as you’ll remember, with some of the witnesses who were saying things that were off the wall.”
Retired Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican who was also a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a Fox Nation documentary about the hearings that Biden told him during the 1991 proceedings that he didn’t believe Hill at the time.
“Biden told me personally that he didn’t believe her,” Hatch said. “He said, ‘I don’t know why she did this.’ I don’t mean to malign Joe, but Joe told me he didn’t believe her, and there were some others that told me that, too.”
In 2019, Biden had a private conversation with Hill, where he expressed regret for the way she was treated. Biden, however, defended his own conduct.
Hill called the conversation “unsatisfying” and said she wouldn’t characterize his apology as sincere.
“An apology, to be real and sincere, has to take responsibility for harm,” Hill told CNN. “He didn’t take responsibility. He didn’t hold himself accountable in any way, except that he was sorry that I felt I wasn’t treated fairly. He didn’t take ownership of his own role as chair of the committee.”
