A Georgia Democrat has said she would rather the state house continue to display a monument of a Confederate general than build a statue honoring Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
State Rep. Donna McLeod, a Democrat, made the comments to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in an article about Georgia Republicans pushing for a statue of Thomas, a Georgia native and the second black Supreme Court Justice.
“I’d rather them keep a Confederate monument than a statue of Clarence Thomas,” McLeod said. “That’s how much I don’t like the idea.”
McLeod was one of several Democrats who claim to be fighting the statue because they believe it insults Anita Hill — who dubiously accused Thomas of sexual harassment during his 1991 confirmation hearings — and victims of sexual harassment.
The insistence that Hill is a victim comes from Democrats rewriting history regarding her testimony in 1991, which included numerous contradictions and verifiable falsehoods. As The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway reported in 2019, the “widely watched hearings revealed inaccuracies in Hill’s various versions of events and ended with 58 percent of Americans believing Thomas and only 24 percent believing Hill.” This poll showed no gap between the sexes when it came to believing Thomas or Hill.
“In the intervening years, activists have relentlessly attempted to change the narrative, writing fan fiction about Hill, bestowing honors on her, and asserting that her disputed allegations were credible,” Hemingway wrote.
Hemingway noted that then-Sen. Arlen Specter asked Hill during her testimony in 1991 some basic questions, such as Specter’s note that witnesses reported that Hill had repeatedly praised Thomas when he was nominated to the Supreme Court, including a former colleague of her and Thomas’ who worked with them at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Hill denied the claims, even though they were corroborated. She also denied praising Thomas to the former dean of her law school.
Hill also claimed during her testimony that she didn’t know Phyllis Barry, who told The New York Times that Hill accused Thomas of sexual harassment because she was “disappoint[ed] and frustrat[ed] that Mr. Thomas did not show any sexual interest in her.”
When Specter presented Hill was statements saying she knew Barry, she was forced to admit that she knew the woman and had worked with her.
Specter also questioned Hill about the contradictions between what she told the Senate and the FBI. “Her testimony with the Senate was much more colorful and descriptive even though it took place just days after her FBI interviews,” Hemingway wrote.
Specter’s last questions regarded a charge from USA Today that said Hill was told her name would not be made public but that her allegations would be taken to Thomas in order to get him to withdraw from the nomination.
Hill refused to answer, insisting she couldn’t remember the conversation from weeks earlier, even though she claimed to vividly recall things Thomas said or did to her years earlier.
President Joe Biden, who was then a U.S. Senator, reportedly told Specter after his questions that it was clear Hill “was lying.” Biden has since tried to claim he always believed Hill, and Democrats have painted her as a victim despite evidence to the contrary.