Anita Hill in Iowa: Too Late for Joe Biden to Apologize

Anita Hill told the audience at a University of Iowa sexual harassment lecture that the “statute of limitations” for Joe Biden’s apology has passed.

“The statute of limitations for his apology is up,” Hill said in answer to an audience question, and was met by applause. “Here is what I want now. … What are you going to do about it? What are you going to do today?” She continued:

Will you promise as leader of this country … would you promise to use all of your energy to address the problem as it happened and to prevent it from happening to another generation? That’s what I want to hear. And I not only want to hear from him, I want to hear from every one of them who want to be the leader of this country.

This should not be news to “Creepy” Joe Biden, who presided over the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings in 1991 — where Hill was mocked and disrespected for reporting then-nominee Clarence Thomas’s repeated sexual harassment.

Hill faced further criticism when she did not instantly accept Biden’s mealy-mouthed non-apology. “I was criticized because I didn’t immediately open my arms and embrace him [and say], ‘OK, I forgive you,’” Hill recalled. “One of the reasons I didn’t was because I didn’t think it was enough.” Hill also said she did not want young women facing similar circumstances to “feel like they had to follow” her example.

And while Biden and his supporters continue to frame him as a champion of women through the Violence Against Women Act he pushed almost 30 years ago, those who have actually been “exposed” to him might disagree.