Anita Hill Takes the High Road on Herman Cain

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Here’s what the Brandeis professor and erstwhile Clarence Thomas accuser had to say about the Cain allegations at TIME’s Person of the Year luncheon earlier this week:

RICHARD STENGEL: We’re right now, in the middle of a Republican campaign and there’s a candidate, Herman Cain, who is going through something like what happened to you in 1991. I wondered whether you have any thoughts about how all that will affect the campaign, any thoughts in particular about what’s happening to Mr. Cain right now.

ANITA HILL: You know I’ve been for the last few weeks on a book tour. I have no comment on Herman Cain.

STENGEL: It will help sell your book

HILL: No it won’t. The book is not about Herman Cain.

People believe I follow politics more closely than I actually do follow politics. I’ll simply say there are some serious issues out there and we all know what they are, and I think any one of us could speculate about what the outcome would be, but none of us know.

BELINDA LUSCOMBE: I know you said you’re not talking about Herman Cain but, you must be gratified that the reactions to the accusations are very different than the reactions from your experience.

HILL: Yeah. Twenty years ago the conversation was entirely different, I mean we all know that. But it has evolved, in the past 20 years, to where we are today. And that’s, you know, that’s a good thing.

Yes, we have evolved tremendously in discussing these kinds of issues and in one way, in some ways it’s just not simply the description of sort of he said/she said, just sort of throwing that out as a way to explain everything, no longer exists. I mean there is some deliberate inquiry and that’s what I think should continue to happen.

Cain, meanwhile, was doubled over with laughter at the mere mention of Hill’s name. Yes, it’s quite the mystery how the guy lost half his women supporters in the last month.

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