--- title: Joe Biden Says He Regrets Not Giving Anita Hill 'Hearing She Deserved' description: Joe Biden said he wished he "could have done something" to give Anita Hill the "hearing she deserved" during Clarence Thomas confirmation canonical: https://time.com/5559507/joe-biden-anita-hill-hearing-regret/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-03-27T14:28:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-13T08:26:29.450Z article:section: Politics og:title: Joe Biden Says He Regrets Not Giving Anita Hill the 'Hearing She Deserved' og:description: "I wish I could have done something," said Biden, who led the committee conducting the hearing og:url: https://time.com/5559507/joe-biden-anita-hill-hearing-regret/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta3682ad90272ee56/6989475f8fd2ee92bd35e042/joe-biden-anita-hill-hearing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Vice President Joe Biden And It's On Us Present The 2019 Biden Courage Awards og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Joe Biden Says He Regrets Not Giving Anita Hill the 'Hearing She Deserved' twitter:description: "I wish I could have done something," said Biden, who led the committee conducting the hearing twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta3682ad90272ee56/6989475f8fd2ee92bd35e042/joe-biden-anita-hill-hearing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Joe Biden Says He Regrets Not Giving Anita Hill the 'Hearing She Deserved' > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=ce25ffdb-79da-4d48-980e-3f426f949ab7&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Joe Biden Says He Regrets Not Giving Anita Hill the 'Hearing She Deserved' [Watch (HLS stream): Joe Biden Says He Regrets Not Giving Anita Hill the 'Hearing She Deserved'](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Bf0wxJ1y.m3u8) (3:46)  _Published 2019-03-27. Former Vice President Joe Biden said Tuesday that he wished he “could have done something” to give Anita Hill the “hearing she deserved” when she testified that she had been sexually harassed by Thomas._  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Mar 27, 2019 2:28 PM UTC Former Vice President Joe Biden said Tuesday that he wished he “could have done something” to give Anita Hill the “hearing she deserved” when she testified that she had been sexually harassed by Thomas.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Mar 27, 2019 2:28 PM UTC Former Vice President Joe Biden — who oversaw the 1991 confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee — said Tuesday that he wished he “could have done something” to give Anita Hill the “hearing she deserved” when she testified that she had been sexually harassed by Thomas. Biden, who [has teased](http://time.com/5539547/joe-biden-president-dont-be-surprised/) a [possible 2020 run for President](http://time.com/5549805/joe-biden-speech-tease-2020-bid/), led the committee of 14 white men who conducted the hearing and questioned Hill.Even at the time, he [faced criticism from women’s groups](https://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/23/biden-and-anita-hill-revisited/) who said he did not take Hill’s claims seriously enough. During the hearing, [Biden asked Hill](https://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/12/us/the-thomas-nomination-excerpts-from-senate-s-hearings-on-the-thomas-nomination.html) to “tell the committee what was the most embarrassing of all the incidents that you have alleged,” and he did not permit other women to testify as witnesses in support of Hill’s testimony. Biden’s role in the hearings has drawn more criticism in recent years, as conversations around sexual harassment change in the [#MeToo era](http://time.com/5401638/silence-breakers-one-year-later-2/) and as [Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony](http://time.com/5415027/christine-blasey-ford-testimony/) about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh [became a modern parallel to Hill and Thomas](http://time.com/magazine/us/5401619/october-1st-2018-vol-192-no-13-u-s/). Both Kavanaugh and Thomas have denied the allegations against them. “She faced a committee that didn’t fully understand what the hell this was all about. To this day, I regret I couldn’t come up with a way to get her the kind of hearing she deserved,” Biden said Tuesday, describing Hill’s testimony as an “act of courage” while speaking at the Courage Awards, hosted by the Biden Foundation and It’s On Us, an organization aimed at stopping sexual assault. After Hill’s high-profile testimony, Thomas was confirmed [by a vote of 52 to 48](https://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/16/us/the-thomas-confirmation-how-the-senators-voted-on-thomas.html), largely along party lines. Biden was among 46 Democrats and two Republicans who voted against his confirmation. “We knew a lot less about the extent of harassment back then, over 30 years ago,” Biden said. “But she paid a terrible price. She was abused through the hearing. She was taken advantage of. Her reputation was attacked. I wish I could have done something.” Biden has [made similar comments](http://time.com/5064108/joe-biden-anita-hill-apology/) expressing regret over his role in the hearings in recent years, [telling _Teen Vogue_](https://www.teenvogue.com/story/joe-biden-anita-hill) in 2017 that, “I wish I had been able to do more for Anita Hill. I owe her an apology.” Biden said Tuesday that he has apologized to Hill — who said as recently as September that she had not received an apology. “It’s become sort of a running joke in the household when someone rings the doorbell and we’re not expecting company. ‘Oh,’ we say, ‘is that Joe Biden coming to apologize?'” [she told _Elle_](https://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a23304942/anita-hill-interview-christine-blasey-ford/) in September. “There are more important things to me now than hearing an apology from Joe Biden. I’m okay with where I am.” Hill [told TIME in 2016](http://time.com/4281036/anita-hill-on-confirmation-what-joe-biden-did-wrong-and-the-clintons/) that she had not spoken to Biden since the hearings. “I expected a fair process. If you file a sexual-harassment complaint in an office, what you find in the best instances is a neutral investigative process. That never happened,” she told TIME in 2016\. “I did expect that the chair would be fair and gather the testimony from the relevant witnesses, like the three women who were not called in to testify, like the experts on sexual harassment that could have helped inform the committee about how the problem manifests itself.” ## Transcript A really notable woman, Anita Hill, Professor, showed the courage of a lifetime talking about her experience being harassed by Clarence Thomas. We knew a lot less about the extent of harassment back then, over 30 years ago, but she paid a terrible price She was abused through the hearing. She was taken advantage of. Her reputation was attacked. I wish I could have done something. I opposed Clarence Thomas' nomination. I voted against him. But I also realized there was a real and perceived problem the committee faced. They were a bunch of white guys. No, I mean this sincerely, a bunch of white guys, hearing, hearing this testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee. So when Anita Hill, when Anita Hill came to testify she faced a Committee that didn't fully understand what the hell it was all about. 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. The hearing she deserved was a hearing where she was respected, where the tone of the questioning was not hostile and assaultive. Where the fact that she stepped forward was recognized as an act of courage in and of itself. Cuz let's face it, back in 1991, it took a lot of courage to take on a man who was so much a part of the establishment and the power structure. It took a lot of courage to damage her own career and her own reputation in the face of a cultural bias That if a woman was harassed or abused, she must have done something to deserve it. It still takes courage. Nearly 30 years later, I public apologized to Anita because she didn't get the hearing she deserved. In the Senate Judiciary Committee has a power an obligation to set a standard for the nation it should not be one of the most difficult places woman learn story of abuse and harassment and it lasts for you saw it all over again the camera. Almost 30 years, The institutional cultures not changed. And that diminishes the likelihood that other women will come forward knowing what they're going to face. When a woman sees a distinguished professor or lawyer subject to that kind of cultural backlash, whether it was Doctor Ford or Professor Hill, saw what they endured. It's understandable that they're reluctant to step forward and tell their own stories of harassment or abuse. Folks, I realize I get a little bit too passionate about this sometimes, but we all have an obligation to do nothing less than change the culture in this country. that's just the laws, we change the laws, change the culture, the culture. You all know what the phrase rule of thumb means, where it is derived from? In English common law, not codification though, common law, back in the late 1300s, so many women were dying at the hands of their husbands because they were cradled, just like the cattle Or the sheep, that the court of common law decided that they had to do something about the extent of the deaths. So you know what they said? No man has a right to chastise his woman with a rod thicker then the circumference of his thumb. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] This is English jurisprudential culture. A white man's culture. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] That's gotta change. 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