Delaware university denies Biden was student after claim he ‘got started’ there
Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden made a weird claim about his university education – which has now been awkwardly shot down.
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Delaware State University has denied that Joe Biden has ever been a student there, after the presidential candidate’s claim that he “got started” at the historically black college.
The 77-year-old Democrat made his claim while praising historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) during a town hall event last October before the South Carolina Democratic primary, video shows.
“I got started out of a HBCU, Delaware State,” he told pupils at Wilson High School in Florence, which was founded in 1866 by the Freedmen’s Bureau for black children seeking an education.
“Now, I don’t want to hear anything negative about Delaware State. They’re my folks,” he told the pupils to chuckles.
However, the politician’s claim came back to haunt him when the university said he had only been a commencement speaker there decades after his start in politics.
“Vice President Biden did not attend DSU,” the college’s director of news service, Carlos Holmes, told The Washington Times.
Instead, he was only a commencement keynote speaker in 2003 and 2016 – a far cry from the start of the political career for Mr Biden, who has been a senator for Delaware since 1973.
He was “awarded an honorary doctoral degree” but was never a student, Mr Holmes stressed.
DSU – founded in 1891 as the State College for Colored Students – is about 60km south of the University of Delaware, where Mr Biden graduated in 1965 with a double major in political science and history.
He went on to study at Syracuse University College of Law – where he failed a class after being accused of plagiarism.
His career since then has been dogged by accusations of misleading voters, including others over his education.
Equally, he has been dogged by repeated slip-ups – with President Donald Trump even repeatedly calling for him to be drug tested before any debates.
Mr Biden’s representative did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
This article originally appeared on NY Post and was reproduced with permission
Originally published as Delaware university denies Biden was student after claim he ‘got started’ there