The woman who accused then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment–and whom was harshly questioned by then-Senator Joe Biden–has said she’ll vote for Biden and work with him on gender-related issues, CNN reports.
Anita Hill, a law school professor who rose to public attention during Thomas’s scandalous 1991 confirmation hearing in which she accused Thomas of showing her pornographic images, making references to the size of male porn stars genitalia and infamously leaving a pubic hair on a soda can, faced the Senate Judiciary Committee when Biden was its chair.
“Notwithstanding all of his limitations in the past, and the mistakes that he made in the past, notwithstanding those — at this point, between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, I think Joe Biden is the person who should be elected in November,” Hill told CNN’s Gloria Borger.
The Committee, which was comprised entirely of men at the time, criticized and doubted the legitimacy of Hill’s testimony and called her reputation into question. While there were other women available to back up Hill’s claims or provide similar encounters of their own with Thomas, Biden’s committee did not call them.
Biden has since discussed the events of 1991 with Hill, and said he publicly that he should have been more forceful in protecting her reputation. Hill would not characterize Biden’s statements to her as an apology, but has moved on from those events, which said described as humiliating.
Hill has said stepping forward to accuse a powerful man changed her life and subjected her to derision and abuse throughout her career.
Asserting that her vote for Biden is not only based on her disliking President Trump, Hill said, “It’s more about the survivors of gender violence. That’s really what it’s about. … My commitment is to finding solutions, and I am more than willing to work with him.”