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"To this day, I regret not having found a way to give her the kind of audience that she deserved, given the courage that she showed in contacting us," said Biden. at an event in New York.
Biden stated that Hill's "deserved audience" was an audience where she was respected and where the tone of the interview was not hostile or insulting. Instead, he said: "She paid a terrible price – she was mistreated during the hearing, she was exploited, her reputation was attacked".
The expression of regret comes as Biden approaches the decision regarding a presidential race in 2020. He has long been criticized for managing audiences nearly three decades ago, and his involvement in them could to be re-examined if he went to the presidential election.
As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee at that time, Biden presided over hearings of Thomas, where Hill alleged that he had been sexually harassed by Thomas.
"I would have liked to be able to do something," said Biden, noting that he had voted against Thomas's nomination to the High Court.
Biden called Hill a "brave lawyer" and "remarkable woman", claiming that she "showed the courage of a lifetime in speaking of her experience harassed by Clarence Thomas".
"We knew a lot less about the extent of harassment at the time, more than 30 years ago," Biden said.
The former vice president said the committee was facing a "real and perceived problem: there was a group of whites" at the hearing of Hill's testimony by the Senate Senate Committee in 1991. .
As a result, when Hill came to testify, "she was confronted with a committee that did not really understand what it was about."
"One mistake we made early on, we thought we should be conducting a harassment hearing for a Supreme Court judge, everyone thought we should do it as if we were hearing it in a hall of the Supreme Court. "Guess What?" It's a job interview. "Right person to sit on the Supreme Court," Biden said. "The presumption should be that if the woman shows up, she probably says the truth, as a presumption that the man is telling the truth." But that is an equal presumption. "
Mr. Biden also discussed the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was accused of physically and sexually assaulting Professor Christine Blasey Ford at a party held during their years of high school.
"Nearly 30 years later, I apologized publicly to Anita because she had not had the audience she deserved and the Judiciary Committee of the Senate has the power and the obligation to set a standard for the nation.This should not be one of the most difficult places that a woman tells a story of abuse and harassment. at the Kavanaugh hearing last fall, you have all relived, "he said. "In almost 30 years, the institutional culture has not changed, and this reduces the likelihood that other women will come forward knowing what they are going to face."
Biden previously stated that he owed Hill, now a professor at Brandeis University, an apology, but it is unclear whether he spoke directly to Hill.
In an interview with NBC last fall, Biden said he had always understood the seriousness of accusations of sexual harassment or sexual assault against women.
"It looks like you have it now, as opposed to 1991," said Craig Melvin of the NBC channel in Biden.
"Well, I think I got it in 91," Biden replied, pointing out that he had drafted the Violence Against Women Act. "People have their own opinion."
Biden's comments came late Tuesday when the Biden Foundation and It's On Us, an Obama era initiative to end sexual assault on college campuses, handed the Biden Courage Awards to students who fight against sexual assault.
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