by Whitney Tipton
Former Vice President Joe Biden said Tuesday he regretted the way he treated Anita Hill during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in 1991.
Biden acknowledged his role in the hearings, as his behavior has come under scrutiny while he positions himself to enter the presidential race, according to the New York Times. The remarks were made during the “Biden Courage Awards Ceremony” in New York.
In his emotional appeal, Biden said that Hill’s testimony was courageous. “She was abused through the hearing. She was taken advantage of. Her reputation was attacked,” he said. “We knew a lot less about the extent of harassment back then. It was over 30 years ago.”
As Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman, Biden believed he helped foster a tone that was “hostile and insulting.”
“I wish I could have done something … But I also realized there was a real and perceived problem the committee faced. We were a bunch of white guys hearing this testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee.”
“To this day, I regret I couldn’t come up with a way to get her the kind of hearing she deserved given the courage she showed by reaching out to us.”
Biden, who has not officially announced his candidacy for the 2020 Democratic nomination, is widely expected to enter the race. There has been speculation that he may select failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacy Abrams as his running mate to counter the perception that Biden represents the older establishment, according to Axios.
During his remarks, Biden stressed the need to “change the culture,” sharing the history of the term “rule of thumb,” which, according to Biden, was derived from an English common law issued in the 1300s to reduce the number of fatal wife-beatings and instructed men to not use rods thicker than the circumference of their thumb.
“This is English jurisprudential culture. A white man’s culture,” he emphasized.
The 76-year-old Biden has been polling as the leading favorite for the Democratic nomination.
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Whitney Tipton is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation. Follow Whitney on Twitter.
Photo “Joe Biden” by Joe Biden. Background Photo “Capitol Hill Hallway” by Derek Key. CC BY 2.0.
If this is the best the democraps have, this is so sad. Oh let’s not forget about the old white socialist POS.
Yeah, Joe, you were a bunch of white Democrats trying to screw over a black Supreme Court nominee, just like the old days with your buddy Democrat Senator Grand Kleagle Robert Byrd.
Own it, dude.
I agree that Joe Biden leaves a lot to be desired. Not only did he mishandle the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas episode in 1991, but he also struck me as a MISANDRIST as well as a racist and a possible misogynist. His portrayal of all black youth (especially male youth) as violent predators is a real insult to many of my black friends, law-abiding people who stood up for me on numerous occasions. They have every right to feel offended and hurt by Biden’s racist remarks. He was also a misandrist in claiming that all males (and only males) are predators while all females (and only females) can be victims of sexual assault. Granted, most perpetrators (at least the reported ones) are male with most of their reported victims being females, enough exceptions to this rule exist to find some of Biden’s statements highly debatable. At least the Violence Against Women Act, despite its gender-specific name, is in fact gender-neutral in that it does recognize that either sex can be a perpetrator or a victim/survivor. If only they would change the name of the law to something like: The Gender Assault Act–a gender-neutral title. Then I would feel more comfortable with the Violence Against Women Act.