Jill Biden says it’s time to “move on” from her husband’s treatment of Anita Hill.
Mr Biden served as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991, where he oversaw Justice Thomas’s confirmation hearings.
Ms Hill testified during these hearings that Mr Thomas had sexually harassed her when she worked under him at the United States Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Her testimony, and the efforts by Senators backing the Republican-nominated Supreme Court nominee, was revisited especially last fall, during Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanugh’s confirmation hearing.
Mr Biden’s role as chairman, particularly in his decisions to not bring forth witnesses to corroborate Ms Hill’s allegations, has been a topic of conversations ever since.
In an interview with NPR on Tuesday, the former Second Lady maintained that Joe Biden's recent phone call with Ms Hill, which Ms Hill said she did not consider an adequate apology for his decisions during the hearing, was enough to move on from their history together.
“He apologised for the way the hearings were run,” Ms Biden told NPR. “And so now it's kind of — it's time to move on.”
Stories about the former Vice President's own inappropriate behaviour towards women have also put a dark spot on his frontrunner status in the 2020 Democratic primary.
Ms Biden says these stories, which gained momentum after former Nevada lieutenant governor nominee Lucy Flores published an essay in New York Magazine describing an event in which the then-Vice President kissed her head and sniffed her hair, are due in part to what she considers one of Mr Biden’s “strengths.”
“He connects with people. And I think that's one of his strengths,” Ms Biden said. “And he heard [Lucy Flores] loud and clear, and he said he would take responsibility and he would you know honour people's space.
“Joe realises these are different times,” Ms Biden continued. “And believe me — he's very conscious of, you know, how he interacts with men and women today."
