[First Questioning of Judge Thomas After Professor Hill's Allegations]
SENATOR BIDEN: Thank you, Judge. You will not be asked to.
Before I begin my questioning of Judge Thomas, I would remind the committee and the nominee that, with respect to one set of allegations, those pertaining to Professor Anita Hill, we are somewhat limited at this stage as to permissible questions. Professor Hill, as recently as late last night, continues to ask us to maintain the confidentiality of her statement to the committee.
So, Judge Thomas, at this stage of the hearing, without having heard Professor Hill's testimony and without using her statement, our questioning to you may not be complete. We may have to discuss some aspects of the allegations with you at the end of these hearings.
I would also note for the record that the choice of the order of these hearings was left to you. I asked whether or not you wished to go first or second, first and last, and you chose, as is your right, to speak first and then, if you so chose, to speak least.
Therefore, with respect to Professor Hill, I intend to focus on the general nature of your relationship with her, her responsibilities in your office and the environment in which she worked.
Judge, you have spoken to some of these issues in your opening statement, but let me ask you--
SENATOR HATCH: Mr. Chairman?
SENATOR BIDEN: Yes.
SENATOR HATCH: Mr. Chairman, I just want to say something for the record here. This is not the appointment of a justice of the peace. This is the nomination process of a man to become a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and he has been badly maligned.
I might add that I have a lot of sympathy for Professor Hill, too, and I am not going to sit here and tolerate her attorneys telling you or me or anybody else that, now that she has made these statements in writing, with what is, if the Judge is telling the truth--and I believe he is--scurrilous allegations, that that statement cannot be used, especially in this proceeding. It is a matter of fairness.
I might add that I have been informed that the reporter who broke this story has her statement and read it to her before she would even talk to her. Now, it would be the greatest travesty I have ever seen in any court of law, let alone an open forum in the nomination process of a man for Justice of the United States Supreme Court, to allow her attorneys or her or anybody on this committee or anybody else, for that matter, to tell us what can or cannot be used now that this man's reputation has been very badly hurt.
SENATOR BIDEN: Would the Senator yield?
SENATOR HATCH: I am not finished.
I intend to use that statement, because it is fair to use it. I do not want to hurt--
SENATOR BIDEN: Senator, let me--
SENATOR HATCH: Let me finish.
SENATOR BIDEN: No, I will not.
SENATOR HATCH: Yes, you will. Yes, you will.
SENATOR BIDEN: Let me just make one--you are entitled to use the statement under the rule. No one, the Chair cannot stop you from using the statement.
SENATOR HATCH: Well, Mr. Chairman, how can it be admissible to everybody? Everybody in this country is going to see it.
SENATOR SIMPSON: Mr. Chairman, how can she request confidentiality at this point, when she said she--
SENATOR BIDEN: I can answer that question. Professor Hill says that she wants to tell her story. She did not release the statement, she says, and she wants her story told by her. Because we have given the opportunity to the Judge to speak first, if he so chose, and he has, that she wants to be able to use her statement in her own words that she has thus far not released and has not spoken to publicly--she has not spoken to publicly--when she comes and addresses the committee.
Now, why don't we get on with this process?
SENATOR THURMOND: Mr. Chairman, let me say a word.
SENATOR HATCH: I am not finished.
SENATOR THURMOND: Wait just a minute.
SENATOR HATCH: Okay.
SENATOR THURMOND: Mr. Chairman, she has been on television telling her story. She has made it public, so, therefore, I think the right to use that statement ought to be admitted.
SENATOR KENNEDY: Mr. Chairman?
SENATOR HATCH: Mr. Chairman, I did not release the floor. I did to the Chairman, because the Chairman -- I want to finish my comments.
SENATOR BIDEN: The Senator from Massachusetts and then we will go back--
SENATOR HATCH: Mr. Chairman?
SENATOR BIDEN: Everybody is going to get a chance to say what--
SENATOR HATCH: All right, if you will come back to me, I would appreciate it.
SENATOR KENNEDY: Mr. Chairman, it seems to me that you outlined a reasonable way of proceeding. I think it is entirely proper that Judge Thomas be able to make what statement that he so desires. And I thought it was a very moving statement, Judge.
It might be appropriate, if that is the desire, that at least we work out in terms of the committee and the committee's understanding the way that we are going to proceed on this. As I understand, the professor had indicated a willingness to testify first or go second, and now we are in the situation where Judge Thomas has spoken, and it seems to me that we ought to be able to work out at least the way that we are going to proceed that is going to be respectful both of Judge Thomas and the witness, without getting into a lot of back and forth up here, which is not really the purpose of the hearing.
What I might suggest, at least, is that we have a very brief recess, so that we can at least find out the way that we can proceed that is consistent with Judge Thomas, consistent with the others, and satisfactory to the committee.
SENATOR HATCH: Mr. Chairman?
SENATOR DECONCINI: Mr. Chairman?
SENATOR HATCH: Mr. Chairman?
SENATOR BIDEN: The Senator from Utah.
SENATOR HATCH: I object to a recess. The fact of the matter is, last Thursday, a substantial majority of the Senate frankly asked us to get to the bottom of this. The public deserves to know now, one way or the other, and the public is going to know, if I have anything to say about it.
Our colleagues demanded it. They did not ask us to just find out so much as the witness will allow us to ask, and I have no intention of pillorying or maligning Professor Hill. I feel sorry for both of these people. Both of them are going to come out of this with less of a reputation. It is pathetic and it would not have happened--
SENATOR DECONCINI: Mr. Chairman?
SENATOR HATCH: Let me finish, if I could.
If somebody on this committee or their staff had had the honesty and the integrity before the vote to raise this issue and ask for an executive session and say this has to be brought--nobody did, and then somebody on this committee or their staff, and I am outraged by it, leaked that report, an FBI report that we all know should never be disclosed to the public, because of the materials that generally are in them. They take it down as it is given. It has raw stuff in it, but it has been leaked. The media knows everything in it. I think the American people are entitled to know, if they want to.
What I am trying to say is that, to be frank, Mr. Chairman, there are inconsistencies in the statement of Anita Hill to the FBI, compared to her other statements. I do not particularly intend to go into that. She is entitled to explain these discrepancies, but Judge Thomas is entitled to point out these inconsistencies for their bearing on the credibility of the accuser in this instance, nice person though she may be, a good law professor though she may be, a fellow Yale law graduate though she may be, and the statements of--
SENATOR BIDEN: Senator- -
SENATOR DECONCINI: Mr. Chairman?
SENATOR DECONCINI: If I could just finish. I promise to be shorter. The statements of the subsequent witnesses are also at variance with Professor Hill's statements with what she told the FBI. If she happens to testify differently today, we have to find out which of those statements are true, and if I--
SENATOR BIDEN: Senator, we are not at liberty to publicly discuss what is in the FBI report. Her statement is what--
SENATOR HATCH: The heck we're not. This report has been leaked to the press, they know about it. Part of it has been read to the accuser in this case. I think it is time to be fair to the nominee. He has come this far. He is the one who is being accused. They have the burden of showing that he is not telling the truth here, and he has a right to face the accuser and everything that accuser says, and if he does not, then I am going to resign from this committee today. I am telling you, I don't want to be on it.
SENATOR BIDEN: The hearing is in recess for 5 minutes.
[Recess.]