Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said “the modern-day liberal” has proven to be a bigger “impediment” than those he was initially wary of — people like the “bigot in the pickup truck” or “Klansmen” — as part of remarks made in the upcoming documentary Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words.
The documentary, which features Thomas’s reflection on his contentious 1991 Supreme Court confirmation, reportedly features the Supreme Court justice explaining that the “modern-day liberal” has proven to be more of a problem than those he was initially wary of.
“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 said, according to ABC News.
“But it turned out that through all of that, ultimately the biggest impediment was the modern-day liberal,” he continued. “They were the ones who would discount all those things because they have one issue or because they have the power to caricature you.
The documentary, produced by “conservative filmmaker Michael Pack and Manifold Productions,” is set to air on PBS in spring 2020, per ABC News:
Thomas sat for more than 22 hours of interviews over a six-month period in 2018, according to the film’s publicist. Manifold has advertised the movie as a chance to “tell the Clarence Thomas story truly and fully, without cover-ups or distortions.”
The movie also casts a spotlight on Biden, who has faced renewed criticism from his fellow Democrats for his treatment of Anita Hill, an African-American law professor who had accused Thomas of sexual harassment and testified publicly before the committee during the 1991 hearings. Biden called Hill to apologize earlier this year for his handling of the case.
Thomas said the confirmation hearing was designed as an attempt to get rid of him.
“Do I have like stupid written on the back of my shirt? I mean come on. We know what this is all about,” Thomas said. “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.”
He added that “the idea was to get rid of me.”
“And then after I was there, it was to undermine me,” he continued: