Photo : AP

Joe Biden, by all accounts, wants to be president. But there’s one pesky woman who keeps getting in his way: Anita Hill.




Biden, you will recall, was the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991, when Hill came forward to accuse Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. The general consensus is that he handled the situation appallingly, and, with Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh in the news, the lingering stench of that fiasco keeps hanging around him.

And ol’ Joe is pissed, according to a report today in the New York Times (emphasis mine):

But Mr. Biden has also complained to allies that fellow Democrats are now judging his role in the Hill hearings without, he believes, appropriately recognizing the limits of his power as a committee chairman, and the political reality of that moment. Publicly, Mr. Biden has expressed regret about the way the Hill hearings unfolded; privately, he has also described it as unfair that Ms. Hill continues to hold him responsible for her rough treatment in the Senate.


The many specific ways that Biden failed Hill have been thoroughly and repeatedly documented. But there is really only one thing you need to know about why Biden is responsible for what happened to Hill: He was in charge of the hearing.

When you’re in charge of something, you have to take responsibility for it. Did you see Chuck Grassley in the Ford-Kavanaugh hearings? He had total control over how those proceedings played out. He’s responsible for them, just like Biden was. Anita Hill holds Biden responsible for how the hearing went because he was literally in charge of how it went.

Here’s a video of the opening of the hearing. Joe Biden is the first person who speaks in it. Why? Because he was in charge.

Moreover, Anita Hill’s entire life was derailed by these proceedings. Biden served two terms as the vice president of the United States. So...yeah, forgive me if I don’t shed a tear for Uncle Joe.