Joe Biden: Anita Hill not satisfied with former vice-president's apology

Biden, who handled her testimony before the Senate in 1991, contacted Hill to express ‘regret for what she endured’

Joe Biden, who launched his third campaign for president on Thursday, told Anita Hill he regretted the way he handled her testimony against Clarence Thomas at the 1991 supreme court hearings but she was not “satisfied” by the conversation.

The former vice-president contacted her earlier this month to express his “regret for what she endured” during the hearing, an attempt to reckon with a defining moment from his past that looms over his present bid for the White House.

But in an interview with the New York Times, published hours after Biden launched his 2020 campaign, Hill said she was not satisfied with his outreach and declined to characterize his comments as an apology.

“I cannot be satisfied by simply saying I’m sorry for what happened to you,” she told the paper. “I will be satisfied when I know there is real change and real accountability and real purpose.”

Biden, who was chairman of the Senate judiciary committee and oversaw the confirmation hearing during which she accused Thomas of sexual harassment, has previously apologized for allowing an all-male and all-white panel of lawmakers to aggressively question Hill.

His role in the hearing has come under fresh scrutiny in light of the #MeToo movement and the 2018 supreme court hearing of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who denied accusations of sexually assaulting a woman when he was a teenager.