Politics
Klobuchar Predicts Anita Hill Criticism Will Hound Joe Biden’s Campaign
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Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a 2020 presidential candidate, predicted criticism of former Vice President Joe Biden’s handling of Anita Hill’s 1991 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee will beleaguer his 2020 campaign.
Speaking Sunday on “Meet the Press,” NBC’s Andrea Mitchell asked Klobuchar what Biden ought to say to Hill at this juncture. The senator said she anticipates Biden will have to continually address the Hill hearings, which prompted her own interest in politics.
“I’m sure he’s going to have to continue to address this issue, as we go through the campaign,” Klobuchar said. “Let me just tell you my perspective. I was a young lawyer when this happened and I remember being captivated by her, watching every moment of that hearing, never thinking I’d end up on the Senate Judiciary Committee.”
“It motivated me to get involved in politics, as it did so many other women,” Klobuchar added. “And now, we go from zero women on that Judiciary Committee to six.”
Klobuchar, a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, sits on the Judiciary Committee and is the ranking Democrat on the panel’s subcommittee for antitrust issues. Prior to her election to the Senate in 2006 she was Hennepin County Attorney.
Biden spoke twice with Hill in April — once to express regret for the manner in which she was treated during the hearings and again to seek permission to make their prior conversation public. Hill found Biden’s apology wanting, saying he has not accepted personal responsibility for the events surrounding Justice Clarence Thomas’s confirmation to the Supreme Court.
Yet Biden does not believe he personally mistreated Hill, nor does he feel personally culpable for the actions of other lawmakers. Opinion is divided even among his own confidants. Cynthia Hogan, a top legal aide to Biden during the Hill hearings, said the GOP outmaneuvered Biden.
“What happened is we got really politically outplayed by the Republicans,” Hogan told The Washington Post.
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