Joe Biden responds to criticism after calling Pence a 'decent guy'

[pnwmom]

41. You don't see how anyone can? Well, Anita Hill gives Biden a share of the blame, and she was there.

She knows what he did and what he failed to do.

And Rep. Patricia Schroeder and Senator Barbara Mikulski also criticized his handling of the hearing.

He was in charge of how the Committee hearings were run, and he made the final decision not to call three women who would have corroborated Anita. He also refused to call a panel of expert witnesses to educate the all-male Senate panel about sexual harassment.

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/10/anita-hill-testimony-crime-bill-haunt-biden-2020.html

After the hearings, as well as years later, Hill and other women’s rights advocates expressed dismay that Biden did not call a panel of expert witnesses to inform the committee of 14 men about the pressure women felt to keep such incidents to themselves for so many years — their fear of reprisals, that men in power wouldn’t care, that women simply had no choice.

https://www.salon.com/2017/11/22/anita-hill-still-blames-joe-biden-for-the-clarence-thomas-disaster/

Anita Hill still blames Joe Biden for the Clarence Thomas disaster


Although Biden did succeed in getting a delay in the hearing so that Hill would have time to testify, other aspects of his conduct aroused more controversy. Here's what Rep. Patricia Schroeder, D-Colo., had to say:

We went to see Biden, because we were so frustrated by it. And he literally kind of pointed his finger and said, you don’t understand how important one’s word was in the Senate, that he had given his word to [Sen. John Danforth (R-Mo.), Thomas’s chief sponsor] in the men’s gym that this would be a very quick hearing, and he had to get it out before Columbus Day.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., also recalled that while Biden may not have planned to attack Hill, he stood by and allowed his Republican colleagues to do so:

With the traditions of the Senate and the committee, Biden thought he was going to conduct a hearing, but the Republicans knew — led by Arlen Specter — that they were going to conduct a trial. And Professor Hill would be the one on trial.