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NEW YORK – Former Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday night condemned the "culture of a white man" as he criticized violence against women. He particularly deplored his role in the Supreme Court confirmation hearings that undermined Anita Hill 's credibility almost three decades ago.
Biden, a Democratic presidential candidate who often points to her white roots in the working class, said Hill, who is African-American, should not have been forced to face a panel of "white guys" about his charges of sexual harassment against Clarence Thomas.
"Today, I regret not having found a way to give her the audience she deserved," he said, echoing the comments he had made. last fall while the country was debating the charges of sexual misconduct brought against Brett Kavanaugh Court confirmation hearing. "I would have liked to be able to do something."
Biden's role in Thomas's confirmation hearings in 1991 is one of his many political challenges, as he plans to run for the 2020 presidential election. When he showed up, he would be among a handful of white men in a Democratic presidential field featuring several women and minorities.
His comments about Hill were quickly condemned on social media, many of them stating that he was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time of the hearing.
"What Biden literally says about sexual assault does not matter, though he can not acknowledge his own guilt by placing a sexual assailant in the Supreme Court and then by pretending for years as helpless, "tweeted Jessica Morales Rocketto, a former Hillary Clinton aide during the 2016 presidential campaign, he is currently the political director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance.
Actress and political activist Mia Farrow described Biden's role in the 1991 hearings as "shameful".
"I like Joe but you were able to do better – and you did not do it," she said.
Mr. Biden, 76, spoke these words at an event in New York, a tribute to youth who helped fight sexual assault on campus. The event, which took place in a place called the Russian Tea Room, was organized by the Biden Foundation and the non-profit group It'sur us, which Biden founded in 2014 with former President Barack Obama.
Biden called on Americans to "change the culture" that goes back centuries and allows widespread violence against women. "It's an English jurisprudential culture, a white man's culture. It must change, "he said.
The former vice president also repeatedly denounced violence against women during his remarks, which lasted more than half an hour. This is a subject he knows well. As a senator from Delaware, he introduced the law on violence against women in 1990.
"No man has the right to get hold of a woman, no matter what she wears, she does, what she is, unless it is in self-defense. Never, 'he said Tuesday.
He then shared a conversation he had with a member of a university fraternity.
"If you see a brother being taken into a fraternity house with a drunk teammate and you're not going to stop him, you're a fucking coward," Biden said. "You do not deserve to be called a man."
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