‘The idea was to get rid of me’: Justice Thomas says Biden-led confirmation fight was about abortion

PBS is scheduled to release a documentary about Justice Clarence Thomas in May. In it, not only will we get an inside look at one of the most private members of the United States Supreme Court, a true rarity, but we will also get to hear Thomas speak about his controversial confirmation to the High Court.

Reflecting on this turbulent event, in which he was accused of sexual misconduct, Thomas revealed why he believes the likes of Joe Biden, who at the time led the Judiciary Committee, brought this baseless claim forward. For Democrats like Biden, Thomas says that he was just “the wrong black guy” for the job, not because of sexual misconduct, but because of his conservative beliefs about abortion.  

Candid as always

Thomas’s confirmation recently came back into the spotlight during the most recent Supreme Court confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh. For those old enough to remember Thomas’ 1991 confirmation, Kavanaugh’s must have seemed like deja vu: both men were baselessly accused of sexual misconduct by the Democrats during the confirmation hearings, an obvious ply to keep conservatives off of the bench.

The similarities go deeper than that. Democrats really seemed to fear the same thing in both cases: that Thomas and more recently Kavanaugh would help the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. To Thomas, this was made clear by Biden’s line of questioning during his 1991 confirmation.

“I have no idea what he [Biden] was talking about,” says Thomas in the documentary, which was previewed by Time magazine. “I understood what he was trying to do. I didn’t really appreciate it. Natural law was nothing more than a way of tricking me into talking about abortion.”

“Most of my opponents on the judiciary committee cared about only one thing: How would I rule on abortion rights,” Thomas continued. “You really didn’t matter, and your life didn’t matter. What mattered is what they wanted and what they wanted was this particular issue.”

“The wrong black guy”

Thomas says that the sexual abuse allegations from Anita Hill, which he has always vehemently denied, were just a means to an end, designed to keep him off the Supreme Court — just as Republicans now believe that the allegations from Christine Blasey Ford were designed to keep Kavanaugh from being confirmed.

“Do I have like stupid written on the back of my shirt?” Thomas asks in the documentary. “I mean come on. We know what this is all about.”

Thomas went on to explain, saying, “People should just tell the truth: ‘This is the wrong black guy; he has to be destroyed.’ Just say it. Then now we’re at least honest with each other. The idea was to get rid of me. And then, after I was there, it was to undermine me.”

Thankfully, Democrats have failed on both accounts.

Biden responds

Biden’s campaign team has released a statement in response, saying, “Then-Senator Biden voted against Clarence Thomas in the Senate Judiciary Committee, he argued against him on the Senate floor, and he voted against his confirmation to a lifetime seat on the Supreme Court. It is no surprise that Justice Thomas does not have a positive view of him.”

This response, of course, fails to address Thomas’ criticism that Biden and other Democrats underhandedly attacked Thomas with a sexual misconduct allegation because of his beliefs on abortion.