Former Vice President Joe Biden said at the 2017 Glamour Women of the Year Summit in November that he owed Anita Hill an apology. As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee during Clarence Thomas's Supreme Court confirmation hearings, he had an opportunity to make Hill's voice heard.
Biden "believed" Hill's claim that Thomas had sexually harassed her when she was working at the Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. While Biden voted against Thomas's nomination, he feels he should have done more to silence her Republican critics on the committee. He was "so sorry" for not doing so, he said again in a Teen Vogue interview last month.
Hill wasn't very impressed.
"He said, 'I am sorry if she felt she didn’t get a fair hearing,'" she told The Washington Post. "That’s sort of an 'I’m sorry if you were offended.'"
Well, having mentioned an apology twice, media outlets were wondering if he had contacted Hill yet.
Biden admitted to PBS's Judy Woodruff on Thursday that he still has not picked up the phone to relay his message.
"I hadn't," he said. "I'm always happy to see her. I wish I could've protected her from the attacks that came at her, but I didn't know any way to do that."
PBS wasn't exactly conciliatory in their reporting. "Biden hasn't contacted Anita Hill, weeks after saying he owes her an apology," their headline blared.
Other outlets made the same observation.
Still, Woodward wanted to know Biden's thoughts on how he is helping combat a culture in which men take advantage of women.
"It's all about the abuse of power," Biden said of the sexual assault revelations that surfaced last year, both in Hollywood and Washington, D.C.
Hill deserves credit because it took "enormous courage for her to come forward," he said.
Rumors suggest Biden is considering a White House run in 2020. He has not confirmed those plans, but he hasn't denied them either.
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