Anita Hill seems to be warming up to Joe Biden — or, at least, his presidential candidacy. When asked by Andrea Mitchell if she could vote for Joe Biden should he become the 2020 Democratic nominee, she said: “Of course I could.”
On Biden’s handling of the Clarence Thomas Hearing in 1991, Hill said, “I don’t think it has disqualified him. He is perfectly capable of running for president.”
Andrea Mitchell on an NBC Nightly News interview aired Thursday asked if there was anything Biden could say to make his actions in 1991 right.
“I really want our leaders to stand up and say what happened in 1991 will never happen again, what happened in 2018 with the Senate hearing will not happen again,” said Hill.
Mitchell then asked if Hill put Biden’s actions on par with President Trump. “Absolutely not. I’ve never said that and I never intended to say that,” said Hill. “I’m not even sure that anything I’ve said has actually hurt Joe Biden’s campaign. He still is leading in the polls.”
In April, just before announcing his candidacy, Biden called Hill to apologize for the way she was treated, though not necessarily for the way he treated her. Biden said on The View that month that he did not vote for Clarence Thomas, and he believed Hill from the beginning. “I did everything in my power to defeat Clarence Thomas.”
Hill told The New York Times she did not consider Biden’s words an apology and she was not convinced Biden had taken full responsibility for his actions during the hearing. She had said she could not support a Biden presidency until he took full responsibility for his actions and his failure to call other women as corroborating witnesses to the stand.
Hill said that she did identify with Christine Blasey Ford and has had contact with her. She said that not enough has changed, and the 2018 hearing “was still that intense pressure from this group of panelists on the committee who really didn’t seem to understand the issue of sexual harassment at all.”
“I want our leaders to stand up and say I understand that this is a serious problem, that women are not safe in the workplace, they’re not safe in our schools, they’re not safe on our streets, and that we are going to use the government resources to eliminate the problems.”
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com
