Biden denies treating Anita Hill 'badly'

Former Vice President Joe Biden on Friday defended his handling of the Anita Hill hearing one day after she expressed dissatisfaction with their private conversation.

During Biden's appearance on The View, his first interview since announcing his 2020 bid, he said he is "sorry" Hill was "treated the way she was treated," but he argued he "did everything in my power." Biden has faced criticism for his handling of the 1991 hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, including for not calling additional witnesses who could have backed up Hill's account that Thomas sexually harassed her. Biden at the time was chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Pressed about why he doesn't apologize more directly, Biden told The View, "If you go back and look at what I said and didn't say, I don't think I treated her badly" and that he simply didn't know how to stop "inflammatory questions."

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Biden also said he didn't call Hill before because he didn't "want to 'invade' her space." Hill had previously said she was waiting for Biden to reach out to her for so long that it was a "running joke" in her house that whenever the door rang, it would be Biden coming to apologize.

The former vice president's campaign on Thursday had said that he spoke with Hill privately, but hours later, Hill said she was unhappy with the conversation, telling The New York Times, "I cannot be satisfied by simply saying, 'I'm sorry for what happened to you.'" Brendan Morrow