Anita Hill was warmly welcomed to The View on Friday, where she was immediately asked about her endorsement for Joe Biden. But the hosts refused to press her on the hypocritical nature of the #MeToo advocate endorsing the candidate who has been accused of sexual assault.
In fact, the hosts completely ignored Tara Reade, just like CNN and CBS did when they hyped Hill’s Biden endorsement. Instead, co-host Joy Behar asked the Clarence Thomas accuser how she could endorse Biden, given he “wasn’t really on her side” during the Supreme Court Justice's confirmation hearings in 1991:
BEHAR: [B]iden, I remember chaired them, and he admits to making mistakes. He did admit that, and he says he's sorry for what happened to you. Now you said that you're going to vote for him for president. Why did you decide that he should get your vote? Because he was not really on your side in those days.
Hill actually credited The View hosts for pressing Biden to the left, or "forward" on this issue:
HILL: Well, you know -- well, first of all, I want to thank you and all of you on the show. Vice President Biden did appear on your show, and I do recall that you helped move him forward I think in understanding his responsibility for those hearings.
BEHAR: Yes.
HILL: And having said that, that is really part of why I have decided that I want to move forward and continue to push for the kind of acknowledgment and responsibility, and accountability for making sure what happened to me and what happened later to Christine Blasey Ford does not happen again…
During that April 26, 2019 episode in which Biden appeared, Behar desperately tried to get Biden to “clean up” his Anita Hill problem, demanding an apology: “So here’s your opportunity right now to just say, apologize, say you’re sorry. I think we can clean this up, right now!” Biden struggled with his answer so badly that Behar had to insist again.
Hill was unsatisfied with Biden’s response and today she didn’t give any reason for why she changed her mind. As we know now, the media has completely dropped this and never were interested in even covering the Tara Reade scandal.
Moving on to the Supreme Court, co-host Sara Haines teed up Hill to attack Amy Coney Barrett as bad for women: “I'm going to call you Anita because you told us to earlier, as somebody who is familiar with the Supreme Court nomination process, I am wondering what you think of President Trump's choice in Amy Coney Barrett and what it could mean for women.”
Hill fretted Democrats "need more time to understand exactly what we're getting with this new, this nominee," )i.e. that they needed more time to drudge up a smear campaign against the nominee). She also touted the need for a "fair hearing" which is laughable considering how they treated the 2018 nomination of Brett Kavanaugh:
Well, I'm not going to make an evaluation of Amy Coney Barrett. What I will say is this. We need more time. We absolutely need more time. You know, the Supreme Court is essential to our democracy. It's as essential as the president. It's as essential as Congress, and we need more time to understand exactly what we're getting with this new -- this nominee. We don't have time. We're in the middle of COVID. We are in the middle of a presidential race. People are struggling to keep their jobs and their homes now. We cannot and should not rush into selecting a Supreme Court nominee just for political expediency. What we need to do is have a fair hearing. It will serve us to the American public, the public that needs to know who is being appointed for a lifetime, as well as service to the court itself and the nominee.
The hosts spent the rest of the interview talking about the activist's work combatting sexual harassment in the entertainment industry with the non-profit she chairs, The Hollywood Commission.
ABC's work helping Democrat candidates get the approval of left-wing activists was paid for by advertisers Prego and Always. You can contact their advertisers at the Conservatives Fight Back page.
Read the transcript below:
ABC's The View
10/09/20
11:43:18 a.m. EasternJOY BEHAR: So lawyer and activist Anita Hill made headlines back in 1991 when she bravely and publicly spoke out against sexual harassment in a toxic work culture, and she continues to speak out and fight for women's equality and fair treatment to this day. Here to tell us about her latest important mission is Anita Hill.
ANITA HILL: Thank you for having me. It's good to be here.
BEHAR: It's an honor and a pleasure to have you here, Ms. Hill. So we're going to get into your nonprofit work in just a minute, but people do remember those hearings. I was on the radio during that time, and I was championing you to the max, and I remember it was a very contentious period. Biden, I remember chaired them, and he admits to making mistakes. He did admit that, and he says he's sorry for what happened to you. Now you said that you're going to vote for him for president. Why did you decide that he should get your vote? Because he was not really on your side in those days.
ANITA HILL: Well, you know -- well, first of all, I want to thank you and all of you on the show. Vice President Biden did appear on your show, and I do recall that you helped move him forward I think in understanding his responsibility for those hearings.
BEHAR: Yes.
HILL: And having said that, that is really part of why I have decided that I want to move forward and continue to push for the kind of acknowledgment and responsibility, and accountability for making sure what happened to me and what happened later to Christine Blasey Ford does not happen again, but not just in terms of Senate Committee hearings. Just in terms of the way we are treating women in workplaces, on the streets, in their homes, in terms of gender-based bias. We have to move -- we have to move on this. This is an issue that's important. It's not just about me and Joe Biden. It's about the welfare of the country.
SARA HAINES: I'm going to call you Anita because you told us to earlier, as somebody who is familiar with the Supreme Court nomination process, I am wondering what you think of president Trump's choice in Amy Coney Barrett and what it could mean for women.
HILL: Well, I'm not going to make an evaluation of Amy Coney Barrett. What I will say is this. We need more time. We absolutely need more time. You know, the Supreme Court is essential to our democracy. It's as essential as the president. It's as essential as Congress, and we need more time to understand exactly what we're getting with this new -- this nominee. We don't have time. We're in the middle of COVID. We are in the middle of a presidential race. People are struggling to keep their jobs and their homes now. We cannot and should not rush into selecting a Supreme Court nominee just for political expediency. What we need to do is have a fair hearing. It will serve us to the American public, the public that needs to know who is being appointed for a lifetime, as well as service to the court itself and the nominee.
SUNNY HOSTIN: I want to talk to you about your work with a nonprofit group called the Hollywood commission to help fight harassment and discrimination in Hollywood. The group surveyed more than 9,600 workers in the industry and found that only 35% believe it is likely that someone in a position of power would be held accountable for harassing someone subordinate to them. As someone who has testified to experiencing this firsthand, what do you see as the challenges of coming forward with allegations of harassment or abuse?
ANITA HILL: Well, I see the challenges as in many ways, as our -- the people who responded to the survey did. People don't come forward because they fear that they're going to be retaliated against, and that's real. It's factual. It happens. They don't come forward because they think they won't be taken seriously, and finally they don't come forward because they realize that even after someone is found to be responsible for bad behavior, that there is no accountability for that behavior, and we've got to stop that. We've got to begin by holding people accountable and we also have to provide people safe and secure platforms and processes for them to report the behavior, and we have to protect them afterwards against retaliation.
ANA NAVARRO: Anita, you and I know each other. We're both on the leadership of Time's Up, the organization, and, you know, every time I see that clip of you in 1991, I'm just in awe because you were speaking up against sexual harassment 30 years ago when nobody was, but listen. My question, Harvey Weinstein was convicted earlier this year of rape and sexual assault against two women and sentenced to 23 years in prison. This led to the end of his career and helped spur the MeToo movement. How effective do you think the movement has been for women?
HILL: I think the movement has been very effective. I don't think that you would have had the accountability for -- excuse me. I don't think that Harvey Weinstein would have been held accountable but for the MeToo movement, and not only did people come forward, but, you know, the district attorneys found a way to hold someone who was accused multiple times, to hold him accountable even while they were protecting due process. We see now that there are new charges against him as well, and again, this is overdue. When we made our first announcement about the survey results, one of the first things that we saw that stood out to us was this sense that people were not -- still not being held accountable, and that can't be left to the MeToo movement. That has to happen because we are willing to make some different choices about how we go forward. And how we treat complaints.
BEHAR: Anita, it's been so great to have you here. You're welcome to come back on our show any time you want. You're part of our family in a certain way, and I always appreciated what you did back in 1991. Our thanks to Anita Hill, and we'll be right back.
