Tapper grills Biden on plagiarism vs. Clinton's email scandal

CNN anchor Jake Tapper asked Vice President Joe Biden if he was "confused" about the double standard in politics that forced him to bow out of the 1988 presidential election over several plagiarism incidents while Hillary Clinton managed to get off the hook for more serious charges.

"No, I felt there was something more important than my candidacy that had to be taken care of," Biden responded Monday evening.

Biden, who then was the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, defended dropping out of the race nearly three decades ago amidst the accusations. Biden said his refocusing on Senate affairs allowed Democrats to block President Ronald Reagan's Supreme Court nominee, Robert Bork.

"It was clear I didn't do what I was accused of doing," said Biden, who admitted in 1987 to plagiarizing a law review article for a paper he wrote in law school. "And secondly, it was a time when the Supreme Court hearing for the Bork nomination was in play. I had to make a choice.

"Do I go out to Iowa and defend myself and fight my way back as friends like Arlen Specter and others suggested I do? I didn't want to be an asterisk in history saying, 'Biden went out to preserve the nomination and in the meantime Judge Bork is on the court.'"
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