Joe Biden Falsely Claims He ‘Got Started Out’ at a Historically Black University

Former Vice President Joe Biden inaccurately claimed on Saturday to have received his start at a historically black college or university (HBCU), despite never having attended such an institution.

Biden, who has history of exaggerating his civil rights involvement, made the claim during a campaign town hall in South Carolina, while talking about his plan for education.

“I got started out of an HBCU, Delaware State, I don’t want to hear anything negative about Delaware State here, okay,” the 76-year-old former vice president said. “But all kidding aside, the fact is that HBCUs are in trouble financially.”

It is unclear exactly what Biden meant by getting “started out” of Delaware State University, especially as the former vice president never attended the historically black university. Instead, Biden is a graduate of University of Delaware – which, although founded in 1743, only desegregated under court order in 1950 – and the Syracuse University School of Law.

This is not the first time the former vice president has exaggerated or misstated large portions of his career and background as he seeks the highest office in the land. In particular, Biden has often cited his work in the civil rights movement as the impetus for his political career.

While Hateful Demonstrations Cripple ‘Elite’ College Campuses, the Opposite Happened at a Major Christian University

Supreme Court Set to Decide Case That Could Criminalize Homeless Encampments

Pelosi university speech interrupted by anti-Israel agitators: ‘Warmonger’

Arrested anti-Israel agitators claim ‘discrimination’ and ‘harassment’ in civil rights complaint

Thirsty for Equality

US Army reservist says he warned of mass shooting before gunman’s attack in Lewiston, Maine

Falcons Torched for Picking Michael Penix Jr. in 2024 Draft, Leave Kirk Cousins ‘Shocked’ and ‘Disappointed’

Republican Registration in Swing State Skyrockets, Showing Where Trump Stands Against Biden

Trump’s legal team prepares to dissect first witness during cross-examination and more top headlines

Rep. Schiff reportedly robbed in San Francisco, forced to attend ritzy campaign dinner with no suit to wear

Biden’s capital gains tax proposal could crush the economy, experts say

GOP lawmakers demand major donors pull funding from Columbia over ‘antisemitic incidents’

Florida man arrested for allegedly pointing lasers at passenger aircraft at international airport: police

Officials knew Manhattan Project chemicals disposed improperly at Missouri sites, documents reveal

Alabama lawmakers advance bill that could lead to prosecution of librarians

“I never thought coming out of the civil rights movement, that I’d see people walking out in fields, carrying torches,” Biden said in August, when accusing the Trump administration of emboldening racists during a speech at Limestone College in South Carolina.

The former vice president has made such claims even though there is little evidence to back them up. Apart from taking part in a few desegregation protests as a teenager in Delaware, no record exists he was part of the central episodes of the civil rights movement throughout the 1960s. In fact, after his raduating law school in 1968, there is no mention of Biden being active in the civil rights movement, let alone serving as one of its leaders. Although evidence is scant, Biden has repeatedly invoked his work in the movement as a defining feature of his adulthood.

Such exaggerations were particularly noted during Biden’s initial foray into presidential politics during the race for the 1988 Democrat nomination. As Breitbart News previously reported, Biden consistently lied during that campaign about having “marched” in the civil rights movement when presenting himself as a candidate of generational change.

“When I marched in the Civil Rights movement, I did not march with a 12-point program,” Biden told a group of New Hampshire school children in 1987. “I marched with tens of thousands of others to change attitudes, and we changed attitudes.”

As Matt Flegenheimer of the the New York Times pointed out, however, the candidate had in fact never marched. Flegenheimer wrote:

More than once, advisers had gently reminded Mr. Biden of the problem with this formulation: He had not actually marched during the civil rights movement. And more than once, Mr. Biden assured them he understood — and kept telling the story anyway.