Joe Biden’s long-term exposure to legislative decisions does not give him a nuanced understanding of it. There have been instances where his judgment has been called into question, such as during the 1991 Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings and his leading role in advocating for tough-on-crime legislation in the 1990s.

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Voting position claim

Opposed voting positions

Joe Biden is fit to serve as president because of his extensive political experience.

Joe Biden is fit to serve as president because his policy achievements demonstrate effective leadership

Opposing arguments

Joe Biden has been involved in major legislative decisions over his lengthy time in US politics, which gives him a nuanced understanding of critical issues.

Quotes that support the claim

During the Thomas hearings in 1991, Biden failed to conduct a full investigation into sexual harassment allegations against the nominee. The committee called on Thomas’s accuser, Anita Hill, to testify, and she provided a vivid account of the nominee’s conduct, but Biden did not allow corroborating testimony from other witnesses. Ever since the staunchly conservative Thomas won confirmation, liberals have criticized Biden for shutting down the hearings before the harassment debate was fully aired. When his handling of the hearings became a presidential campaign issue, Biden told ABC News in 2019 that "Hill did not get treated well. I take responsibility for that."

As Judiciary Committee chairman, Biden was a leading advocate for massive tough-on-crime legislation such as the 1994 federal crime bill that stiffened sentences, widened application of the death penalty, added police officers to the streets, and provided funding for new prisons. Crime in America had tripled between 1960 and 1990, inflamed by a crack-cocaine epidemic in the 1980s. Working with police groups, Biden wrote the Senate version of the bill, which he used to proudly call the Biden Crime Bill. When Congress passed the new law with bipartisan support, it was not considered terribly controversial. But in recent years, it has been seen as contributing to the plague of mass incarceration. The passage of time has changed the public’s perspective of the law, and the quarter-century-old legislation surfaced as a point of controversy in the 2020 Democratic primaries, forcing Biden to defend his role in shaping it.

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Joe Biden has played an instrumental role in the passage of significant legislation during his time as a senator.

US Politics

Voting position claim