WATCH: Chris Wallace Asks Anita Hill If Biden Apology For Thomas Hearing Was ‘Sincere’
Author and Professor Anita Hill, who famously accused then-Judge Clarence Thomas of sexual misconduct, told CNN anchor Chris Wallace that President Joe Biden’s apology was “inadequate.”
from Wallace’s series Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace, the host asked Hill to weigh in on Justice Thomas’ part in overturning Roe v. Wade, and provocatively asked about Mrs. Thomas, a pro-Big Lie activist who exchanged text messages with then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows prior to the events of Jan. 6. and has admitted she attended the rally that preceded the attack, as well:
WALLACE: There’s another part to this story. And that is that the chairman of the committee was a fellow named Joe Biden. And he waited almost 30 years, until 2019, when he was just about to run for President, when he decided to call you and to apologize. And let’s take a look at how he explained his phone call with you.
[[CLIP]] I am sorry, she was treated the way she was treated. I wish we could have figured out a better way to get this thing done. But I think what she wants you to say is I’m sorry for the way I treated you not for the way you were treated. I think that might be a little closer. If you go back and look what I said and didn’t say, I don’t think I treated her badly.
WALLACE: Do you think his apology was sincere? Or do you think he was just checking a box? Because I’m gonna be running for president?
HILL: You know, I don’t know whether it was sincere or not, I can’t really get (crosstalk the nature of the apology itself was inadequate. I mean, he said, I’m sorry, the bad things happened to you. Well, instead of owning it,
WALLACE: when he talked to you on the phone, well said that.
HILL: He basically said what he said in that right at that moment,
WALLACE: he didn’t say it, I apologize for what I did.
HILL: Yeah, he he began to own his role in terms of what happened to me, he moved a little bit further to it closer to it. But at that moment, after hearing this, I’m sorry for what happened to you over and over again. I moved on. And by the time we got to I apologize for my role. I wish I had done better. That’s fine. But at that point, I wanted somebody to say this was when he was on the verge of announcing his president’s presidential candidacy. Let’s say I wanted somebody who was going to say, look, I realize the harm that wasn’t done tell all of America that as you say that this was this culture. For a moment that people were confused and didn’t understand what the problem was, why it mattered, in this hearing. And, and he didn’t rise to the occasion of understanding the depth of the harm that that hearing cause. That is where I was, by the time we got to the telephone conversation, I wanted more from the leader of the free world. because I thought if you become the leader of the free world, you’re gonna have all kinds of power to redress concerns that that have been lingering, and they have been lingering.
The latest interviews from Wallace’s series Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace feature Gloria Estefan, Professor and author Anita Hill, and journalist Malcolm Gladwell.
Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace drops new episodes Fridays on HBO Max, with a highlights show on CNN Sunday night.
Watch the full exchange above via HBO Max and CNN.
