Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas accused Democrats of using the Anita Hill accusations to “undermine” his time on the court.
In the upcoming documentary Created Equal: Clarence Thomas In His Own Words, the justice spoke about the accusations of sexual misconduct he faced during his confirmation hearing.
According to a report on the film from Time, Thomas revealed that “all heck broke loose” when Hill accused him of making sexual advances toward her earlier in his career.
He claimed that Democrats didn’t care about adding a black man to the court if he held different beliefs. Thomas said Senate Democrats thought he was the “wrong black guy” and that he needed to be “destroyed.”
He told the film crew that Democrats were willing to attack his character and end his career so long as it protected Roe v. Wade.
“Most of my opponents on the Judiciary Committee cared about only one thing: How would I rule on abortion rights?” he said. “You really didn’t matter, and your life didn’t matter. What mattered was what they wanted. And what they wanted was this particular issue.”
He claimed the Hill accusations were used to “undermine” his rulings once he joined the court.
“The idea was to get rid of me,” he said in the film. “And then after I was there, it was to undermine me.”
Thomas revealed that he faced racism throughout his career, but maintained that “modern day liberals” launched the most vicious attacks.
“It turned out that through all of that, ultimately the biggest impediment was the modern day liberal,” the justice said.
“There’s different sets of rules for different people,” he said in the film’s trailer. “If you criticize a black person who’s more liberal, you’re a racist. Whereas you can do whatever to me, or to now [HUD Secretary] Ben Carson, and that’s fine, because you’re not really black because you’re not doing what we expect black people to do.”
The film is set to air on PBS in May.
