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Despite his recent claims to the contrary, Joe Biden has clarified that he was not, in fact, arrested in South Africa during a visit in the 1970s. During an interview with CNN, Biden clarified the story, which many have been blasting him for online.
“I wasn’t arrested, I was stopped. I was not able to move where I wanted to go,” Biden told John Berman during a CNN broadcast. Biden’s numerous claims that he had been arrested in South Africa during a visit in the 1970s were likely for reputation management. Biden is trying to drum up support from black voters ahead of Saturday’s South Carolina primary.
During his South Carolina Launch Party earlier in February, Biden told supporters “This day 30 years ago, Nelson Mandela walked out of prison and entered into discussions about apartheid. I had the great honor of meeting him. I had the great honor of being arrested with our UN ambassador on the streets of Soweto trying to get to see him on (Robben) Island.”
Then, on February 16 he repeated this claim that he was arrested while trying to see Nelson Mandela. On February 18, a version of this story was told again, in the context of how Biden got married to wife Jill.
However, Biden admitted he was never actually arrested in South Africa. This came after reporters were unable to find any mention of this alleged arrest. As for what actually happened, Biden went into further detail.
“They had me get off a plane — the Afrikaners got on in the short pants and their guns. Lead me off first and moved me in a direction totally different,” Biden told reporters as he recounted the updated version of the story.
“I turned around and everybody, the entire black delegation, was going another way. I said, ‘I’m not going to go in that door that says white only. I’m going with them.’ They said, ‘You’re not, you can’t move, you can’t go with them.’ And they kept me there until finally I decided that it was clear I wasn’t going to move.”
The Biden campaign is betting big on South Carolina. The former Vice President is banking on a major turnout of black voter. He hopes they will vote for him due to his time in the White House with then-President Barrack Obama. However, Democratic frontrunner Bernie Sanders poses a serious threat to the Biden campaign.
After some staggering losses in the first three contests of 2020, Biden’s campaign needs a win. Should they fail, their campaign could fall too far behind in pledged delegates. It seems unlikely that he will be a serious contender for the 2020 Democratic Presidential nomination.
