Retired Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said in an upcoming documentary that former Vice President Joe Biden told him personally that he did not believe Anita Hill’s sexual-harassment allegations against Clarence Thomas during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings in 1991.
Biden, D-Del., was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Hatch the ranking Republican, during the contentious hearings, when Hatch said he made the remark.
“Biden told me personally that he didn’t believe her,” Hatch said in a clip for the Fox Nation documentary, “Confirmation Chronicles Volume 2: High Tech Lynching,” scheduled to air Wednesday. “He said, ‘I don’t know why she did this.’
“I don’t mean to malign Joe,” Hatch continued, “but Joe told me he didn’t believe her — and there are some others who told me that, too.”
Thomas was an appellate court judge in Washington when President George H.W. Bush nominated him to succeed Justice Thurgood Marshall in 1991.
He had served in the Education Department in the Reagan administration and then headed up the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for eight years.
After his nomination, Hill, who served under Thomas at both agencies, accused him of sexual harassment. He denied the allegations — and Hill testified at Thomas’ confirmation hearing.
He was narrowly confirmed by the Senate 52-48, though Biden voted against the nomination. Thomas, now 71, is among the court’s three senior justices.
Biden has since said he believed Hill’s accusations from outset, telling ABC’s “The View” earlier this year, “Not only didn’t I vote for Clarence Thomas, I believed her from the beginning.”
But Hill has ripped Biden for his role in the hearings, and he apologized before announcing his 2020 presidential candidacy in April.
