Biden regrets role in 1991 Hill grilling

Former Vice President Joe Biden Tuesday lamented his role in Clarence Thomas’ confirmation hearings nearly three decades ago, during which Anita Hill accused now-Supreme Court justice of sexual harassment.

“A brave lawyer, a really notable woman, Anita Hill, a professor, showed the courage of a lifetime talking about her experience being harassed by Clarence Thomas,” Biden said at The Biden Courage Awards. “But she paid a terrible price. She was abused in the hearing. She was taken advantage of. Her reputation was attacked. I wish I could have done something.”

Biden, who was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time, voted against Thomas’ nomination but declined to call witnesses who were there to support Hill’s allegations.

In October 1991, Hill, who worked for Thomas when he was the assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and then followed him to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as his assistant, that her former boss “talked about pornographic materials depicting individuals with large penises or large breasts involved in various sex acts. On several occasions. Thomas told me graphically of his own sexual prowess,”

Hill said Thomas brought up the name “Long Dong Silver” from a pornographic movie and referred to the size of his own genitalia.

“I took [his comments] to mean we ought to have sex or we ought to look at these pornographic movies together,” Hill said at the time. She said he never specifically asked for sex.

Biden has faced renewed criticism for his handling of the hearing in the #MeToo era and has said several times over the past few years that he regrets his actions, or lack thereof.

Hill (photo) has said Biden had apologized, but never to her.

“The statute of limitations has run on an apology. I don’t need an apology,” she said at an event at USC in November. “But sometimes when the doorbell rings, and I am not expecting anyone, I think, could that be Joe Biden?”