Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas was critical of former Vice President Joe Biden over his line of questioning during Thomas’ confirmation in the early 1990s, when Biden was still a U.S. senator from Delaware.
In a new documentary set for release early next year titled, “Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words,” Thomas reflected on how he was treated regarding allegations of sexual misconduct by a former legal clerk, Anita Hill, whose charges were never substantiated.
“I felt as though in my life I had been looking at the wrong people as the people who would be problematic toward me. We were told that, ‘Oh, it’s gonna be the bigot in the pickup truck; it’s gonna be the Klansmen; it’s gonna be the rural sheriff,'” Thomas says in the film.
“But it turned out that through all of that, ultimately the biggest impediment was the modern day liberal,” he said of the experience.
“They were the ones who would discount all those things because they have one issue or because they have the power to caricature you,” he continued.
Biden, a 2020 Democratic presidential frontrunner, was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time Thomas was nominated to the high court by President George H. W. Bush.
Manifold Productions described the film as a way to “tell the Clarence Thomas story truly and fully, without cover-ups or distortions.”
According to a timeline of events by CNN, Hill told Biden’s committee about her allegations of sexual misconduct but did not want her name revealed and did not want Thomas to know she had made them.
The Bush White House directed the FBI to investigate Hill’s claims in September 1991.
“Three days later, the FBI completed its investigation, and a report was submitted to the White House and the Judiciary Committee, according to Smith’s statement,” CNN reported.
“The White House reviewed the report and determined that the allegation was unfounded,” the statement said.