Former Vice President Joe Biden — who presided over the Senate Judiciary Committee during Clarence Thomas’ confirmation and oversaw testimony from Anita Hill, who claimed Thomas has sexual harassed her for years — said women who choose to come forward with allegations should be believed.
He claimed he had always believed Hill was telling the truth during hearings, which he later apologized for how he handled.
“For a woman to come forward in the glaring lights of focus, nationally, you’ve got to start off with the presumption that at least the essence of what she’s talking about is real, whether or not she forgets facts, whether or not it’s been made worse or better over time,” he told reporters at an event at the home of Irish Ambassador Dan Mulhall Monday. “But nobody fails to understand that this is like jumping into a cauldron.”
Biden’s record on these matters is far from 100 percent but of course being lovably irrepressible as he is he can’t help but pontificate as if it weren’t.
Never been a huge fan, obviously. He was an OK veep but that’s as far as I’d like to go.
What a fucking hypocrite… But then again he probably doesn’t remember Anita Hill. Time for Biden to GO
Yeah.
Apparently he does remember, AMD regrets his behavior. "He claimed he had always believed Hill was telling the truth during hearings, which he later apologized for how he handled."0
I was a mother of two young women entering college during the Anita Hill testimony and remember it well. Think of the lineup of senators Anita Hill faced and what we know about them now. Biden was thoughtfully the most sympathetic to Hill among them and he wore a condescending glare and his questions were uncomfortable to watch with their sheer irrelevance and nonsensical minutia. Specter was cruel and blatantly harrassed Hill. Her performance was professional and I marveled at her ability to follow their inanity with composure and answer what seemed like constant badgering and nonsense. Also in the lineup of white male senators was Strum Thurman (let that sink in).
Biden will never survive that politically, particularly today. Every time I see him put his hands on a woman’s shoulders as if he is a gift frim god, I cringe.