Joe Biden trolled after he reiterates debunked claim he was 'involved deeply' in Civil Rights movement

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: President Joe Biden found himself at the center of controversy on Wednesday, May 29, after making claims about his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement during a campaign event aimed at courting Black voters in battleground Pennsylvania.

Despite having previously acknowledged that he was not actively involved in the movement, Biden reiterated his supposed activism from decades past.

Joe Biden repeats false claim

“I got involved as a kid in the Civil Rights Movement,” Biden, 81, stated to a group of Black officials and local residents at a Philadelphia restaurant and jazz bar. He repeated the assertion later in his talk, specifying 1969 as the start of his activism.

“Like I said, in 1969, I got involved deeply in the Civil Rights Movement, and those of you who are Pennsylvanians know that Delaware used to be a slave state and a southern state and it’s that attitudes — I mean, for real,” he added.

Delaware, indeed a former slave state, never seceded to join the Confederacy, a nuance that complicates Biden's narrative about the state's historical context.

At another point during his remarks, Biden claimed: “I know a lot about HBCUs [historically Black colleges and universities] because Delaware State HBCU was the place I got organized and started.”

This statement echoes previous assertions Biden has made about his connections to the Civil Rights Movement, including a claim to radio host Howard Stern last month that he “got arrested standing on the porch with a Black family” during civil rights protests — a claim for which no evidence exists.

During the 2020 presidential campaign, Delaware State University was compelled to clarify that Biden had never been a student there. The then-candidate had reiterated his claim that “I got started” at the school. This clarification was just one instance where Biden’s recollections about his involvement in civil rights activities have been questioned, the New York Post reported.

Evolution of lies

Biden's recounting of his involvement has varied over the years. In a public conversation with Oprah Winfrey late in the 2020 presidential campaign, Biden narrated a version in which police escorted him home from a protest, believing he might get into trouble.

“And there were people protesting and I told you not to go down there and you went down and the police brought you back because you were standing on the step with the Black family,” Biden quoted his mother. "You were standing with them. And the police brought you home because they thought you’d get in trouble.”

He told Winfrey that he replied, “Yeah, Mom, I remember that.”

Biden’s 2017 memoir includes an abbreviated version of this story, but makes no mention of an arrest. Notably, no other Biden memoir recounts such an incident, noted The Washington Post and PolitiFact.

During his first presidential run in 1987, Biden admitted he was not very involved in the movement.

According to a New York Times report, he said, “During the ’60s, I was, in fact, very concerned about the civil rights movement. I was not an activist. I worked at an all-Black swimming pool on the east side of Wilmington, Delaware. I was involved in what they were thinking, in what they were feeling.”

He added, “But I was not out marching, I was not down in Selma. I was not anywhere else. I was a suburbanite kid who got a dose of exposure to what was happening to Black Americans.”

Joe Biden excoriated on social media

Biden was trolled on social media after he repeatedly claimed on Wednesday that he was involved in the Civil Rights Movement despite already having admitted in the past that he wasn't an activist.

"I mean, we know he wasn't. He was just shy of dropping N-bombs throughout most of his early political career," one posted on X.

"Was that before or after he spoke of the racial jungle?" another asked.

"I wonder if the rally attendees know Joe Biden lies to them? I think they know," a comment read.

"Why let pesky facts get in the way of a good fake narrative," someone else chimed in.

"It’s a stutter, bigot!” another quipped.

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