Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas doesn’t blame white supremacists for trying to derail his career — he points his finger at “the modern-day liberal,” a group that includes former Vice President Joe Biden.
Thomas expounds on this theme in the upcoming documentary, “Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words,” a copy of which was obtained by ABC News Thursday. He spends a lot of time talking about his still controversial confirmation to the Supreme Court by the Senate Judiciary Committee — whose chairman at the time was Democratic Delaware Sen. Biden.
Black law professor Anita Hill accused Thomas of sexual harassment during the 1991 hearings. (RELATED: Klobuchar Predicts Anita Hill Criticism Will Hound Biden’s Campaign)
“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 explains in the film.
“But it turned out that through all of that, ultimately the biggest impediment was the modern-day liberal,” he said of his confirmation process. “They were the ones who would discount all those things because they have one issue or because they have the power to caricature you.”
Thomas blames the Democrats on the committee who he says tried to stereotype him “because they have one issue or because they have the power to caricature you.”
Thomas, now as then, says Hill was never telling the truth.
“Do I have like stupid written on the back of my shirt? I mean come on. We know what this is all about,” Thomas says in the film. “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,” he says. “And then after I was there, it was to undermine me.”