Mark Paoletta was a lawyer in the Bush White House working on the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. Paoletta joined the Federalist Radio Hour to set history’s record straight in light of the new HBO movie, “Confirmation.” The politically-charged drama tells the story of Anita Hill’s allegations of sexual harassment against Thomas, and as a close spectator of the case, Paoletta says the movie is historically inaccurate.
“What the film does, is tries to rewrite history to make her more credible,” he said. “It leaves out lots of her implausible claims and explanations.”
“Confirmation” portrays Hill as a reluctant witness who the Senate just finds and contacts out of nowhere. “Anita is the person, in my opinion, who set this rumor in motion,” Paoletta said. “We know, based on an independent investigation, that she called a friend in Washington who was a well-connected lawyer…and released her to spread this rumor.”
It seems that the timing of this movie aligns well with the war on women narrative that many presidential candidates have been campaigning on. “In my view, it was ‘let’s drop [the movie] into the middle the 2016 presidential election year and help Hillary Clinton’,” he said.
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