Joe Biden and the Apology That Wasn’t
On Tuesday of last week, Joe Biden gave a speech in New York City at the Biden Courage Awards. During the talk, the former vice president addressed a nearly 30-year-old matter that remains a raw one for many Americans: the way Biden, as the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991, had handled the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas. And the way he had mishandled the testimony, as part of those hearings, of Anita Hill. “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 told the crowd, magnanimously. “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.”
As the statesman and continued with his speech, he moved from the passive voice to the declarative: “There were a bunch of white guys … hearing this testimony in
