(CNN) Former Vice President Joe Biden said Tuesday that Anita Hill "paid a terrible price" when she testified in 1991 that she had been sexually harassed by now-Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, adding that he regrets he didn't give Hill the "hearing she deserved."

"To this day I regret I couldn't come up with a way to get her the kind of hearing she deserved, given the courage she showed by reaching out to us," Biden said at an event in New York.

Biden said the hearing Hill deserved "was a hearing where she was respected, where the tone of the questioning was not hostile and insulting." Instead, he said, "she paid a terrible price -- she was abused through the hearing, she was taken advantage of, her reputation was attacked."

The expression of regret comes as Biden is nearing a decision about a presidential run in 2020. He has long faced criticism for his handling of the hearings nearly three decades ago, and his involvement in them could undergo fresh scrutiny should he mount a presidential bid.

As the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman at that time, Biden presided over Thomas' confirmation hearings, where Hill alleged she had faced sexual harassment by Thomas.

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