Anita Hill told CNN Saturday that she will vote for Joe Biden in November and is willing to work with him if he becomes president on issues of sexual harassment, gender violence and discrimination.
Why it matters: Biden was chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991 and oversaw the confirmation hearings of then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. Hill testified in those hearings that Thomas sexually harassed her when they worked together. Thomas denied Hill's allegations.
- Biden has since expressed regret that he didn't ensure that Hill got “the hearing she deserved."
What she's saying: "Notwithstanding all of his limitations in the past, and the mistakes that he made in the past — notwithstanding those — at this point, between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, I think Joe Biden is the person who should be elected in November," Hill told CNN
- But it's not just because he's running against Trump, she noted. "It's more about the survivors of gender violence. That's really what it's about. ...My commitment is to finding solutions, and I am more than willing to work with" Biden.
Biden, in a CNN interview in July, said he "believed [Hill's] story from the very beginning" and wished he "protected her more" during the hearings....
- Biden also said he apologized to Hill in a 2019 phone call, but Hill told The New York Times that she was left feeling unsatisfied. "I will be satisfied when I know there is real change and real accountability and real purpose," she said at the time.