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Joe BidenCongratulations to our presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden!
 

Shrek

(3,984 posts)
Wed May 1, 2019, 08:19 AM May 2019

"I Support Anita Hill, and Joe Biden, Too"

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/opinion/biden-anita-hill.html

I believed Anita Hill in 1991. I still do. At the time of the Clarence Thomas hearings, I spearheaded an effort by more than 120 female law professors to petition the Senate Judiciary Committee to delay its vote on Judge Thomas’s nomination in order to fully investigate Ms. Hill’s sexual harassment claims against him. I remain profoundly disappointed with the results of the hearings.

But I also support Joe Biden, who was the chairman of those hearings, and who today has become the focus of much of the frustration of those disappointed by them. That focus is, I believe, misplaced.

Ms. Hill was treated badly by the Judiciary Committee, and Mr. Biden, as he admits, could have done more to assure a better hearing. He also could have issued an earlier and more meaningful apology than the one he recently made as he prepared to announce his presidential campaign. But it was not Mr. Biden who made the hearings as abusive to Ms. Hill as they were.

It was Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, who declared the proceedings a “war” and characterized Ms. Hill’s testimony as “flat-out perjury.” It was Alan Simpson, Republican of Wyoming, who suggested that Ms. Hill might be suffering from “a delusional disorder” and stated that unnamed others had told him to “watch out for this woman.” It was Howell Heflin, Democrat of Alabama, who suggested in his questioning that Ms. Hill might be a “scorned woman.” It was John Danforth, Republican of Missouri, who referred to Ms. Hill’s testimony as a “smear campaign.” (He later conceded that he had shown “no concern at all for fairness to Anita Hill.”) And it was Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah, who declared that anyone who could produce allegations “so graphic and so crude and so outrageous” as Ms. Hill’s was “not a person” but a “psychopathic sex fiend or pervert.”
If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for:
Joe Biden
7 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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crazytown

(7,277 posts)
1. Biden was the Chairman, not a prosecutor.
Wed May 1, 2019, 08:32 AM
May 2019

Yes, with hindsight there are things he could have done differently, but there always are. He was outmanoeuvred by the GOP. The behaviour of the Republican Senators was disgraceful. They behaved with the sort of malice, and dishonour which is very familiar today but largely left in the drawer back then. They broke assurances given to Biden in private. If Professor Hill wants to pin the blame on Joe, she is entitled to do so, but as a matter of procedure and logic, she is wrong

If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for:
Undecided
 

Demsrule86

(68,695 posts)
2. I agree... Biden regrets this, I bet Hatch doesn't. 30 years ago. Biden wrote the violence against
Wed May 1, 2019, 08:36 AM
May 2019

Women bill and got it passed...that is way more important.

If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for:
Joe Biden
 

spooky3

(34,483 posts)
3. I like the author's pointing out the vile quotes made mostly
Wed May 1, 2019, 08:40 AM
May 2019

By Republicans. If we are going to remember this terrible process, let’s remember all of the important elements.

If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for:
Joe Biden
 

crazytown

(7,277 posts)
4. You see, here's the thing
Wed May 1, 2019, 08:48 AM
May 2019

Joe Biden composed what the GOP said, and handed them their scripts before the hearings. They memorised them well, didn’t they?

If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for:
Undecided
 

Skya Rhen

(2,701 posts)
5. Finally - I have been arguing this point for weeks -Biden was never verbally disrespectful to Hill..
Wed May 1, 2019, 12:19 PM
May 2019

When I watched the hearings in real time, as an 19 year-old AA woman, I was impressed and heartened to see such a distinct and glaring difference between Biden and the other Republicans on the committee. This is the moment when I connected to him and have been a supporter of his, ever since.

He was always warm and polite in his behavior towards Hill. i.e. he did not "treat her badly", which is what so many people want him to falsely confess to and apologize for.

No. Biden is and has always been a decent man.

If they want to say that Biden should have made different decisions regarding what other additional evidence/witnesses was or was not allowed - that is a separate issue.

As chairman, Biden had the discretion to make such decisions and, in no way, just because one might disagree with these decisions should it be viewed as him having "treated her badly".

Go ahead and say that the decisions were fair or unfair, right or wrong - but do not say that this proves that he "treated her badly".


If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for:
Joe Biden
 

bloom

(11,635 posts)
6. On VOX - "The Joe Biden and Anita Hill controversy, explained"
Wed May 1, 2019, 12:29 PM
May 2019

"...While every lawmaker on the committee had his own dedicated time to ask questions, Hill supporters noted that Biden was the one overseeing all of the proceedings and could have used his authority to step in. “The Republicans metaphorically stoned Anita Hill, while the Democrats, Biden being the gatekeeper, let it happen,” Angela Wright Shannon, an EEOC employee who also raised allegations against Thomas, told Roll Call.

Hill’s camp also notes that Biden contributed to the hostile tone of the hearing himself. “I was shocked and dismayed that Joe Biden was asking questions that didn’t seem appropriate and was not in her corner as a Democrat,” Charles Ogletree, a Harvard law professor who served as Hill’s attorney, told Politico. “The point is that he’s supposed to be neutral, but his questions to Anita Hill were as piercing as anyone’s.”

Biden has previously argued that the rules governing the committee limited how much he was able to intervene, especially when questions were being asked by other lawmakers."

...Biden has also been criticized for not calling more witnesses who could have helped corroborate Hill’s account. Sukari Hardnett and Wright Shannon were both EEOC employees who said they could speak to the culture of the office. Both were not ultimately called to testify, nor was at least one other woman who said she could back Hill’s allegations.

“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,” Hill told Time in 2016....

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/3/27/18262482/joe-biden-anita-hill-2020-christine-blasey-ford-brett-kavanaugh

If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for:
Undecided
 

Skya Rhen

(2,701 posts)
7. Kindly quote the "piercing questions" that Biden asked...
Wed May 1, 2019, 12:38 PM
May 2019

The NY Times gave direct quotes made by Biden, that showed his decency.

The VOX article referred to the impression of Hill's attorney that Biden's questions were "piercing". Give me some direct quotes from Biden that were piercing or not appropriate...

If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for:
Joe Biden
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