(Headline USA) President Joe Biden once again falsely claimed this weekend that he was detained by South African authorities in the 1970s while visiting Nelson Mandela, despite admitting last month that the story wasn’t true.
“I got stopped when I was a young senator trying to see Nelson Mandela in South Africa,” Biden said during an interview with NowThis News. “Afterward he heard, and when he got released, he came to see me in Washington and he walked up to me [and] said, ‘Thank you.’”
This is the third time in recent years that Biden has claimed he was arrested while trying to visit Mandela. But on Sept. 16 of this year, Biden admitted that he hadn’t actually been detained or arrested by South African police.
“One of the great moments of my career was when — the first time Nelson Mandela came to the United States [in 1990] … and we met in the Senate Foreign Relations executive committee room,” Biden said in September. “Afterwards, he asked if he could come by my office and he came by to say thank you because he heard I had been stopped trying to get to visit him, to see him in prison.
“I said once — I said I got arrested. I wasn’t arrested, I got stopped, prevented from moving,” he clarified.
This lie was a particular favorite of Biden’s on the 2020 campaign trail. He even claimed in front of a South Carolina audience that he “had the great honor of being arrested with our UN ambassador on the streets of Soweto trying to get to see [Mandela].”
2 YEARS AGO TODAY: Biden said he “had the great honor of being arrested” in South Africa trying to see Nelson Mandela.
Later, Biden admitted: “I wasn’t arrested. I was stopped.” pic.twitter.com/DZIMPAZ6JR
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 11, 2022
Even the Washington Post has ripped Biden for repeatedly lying, calling the story “ridiculous.”
“Biden has never been shy about tooting his own horn. So it’s pretty surprising that on the eve of a primary critical to his election hopes, he suddenly recalls being arrested in South Africa — and being thanked by Mandela for being arrested,” wrote Washington Post fact checker Glenn Kessler.
“There is no evidence for either claim; neither appears remotely credible. Biden earns Four Pinocchios.”
2 YEARS AGO TODAY: After claiming three times that he was “arrested” trying to visit Nelson Mandela in South Africa, Biden finally admitted he “wasn’t arrested.” pic.twitter.com/vAy4E4kRoQ
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 28, 2022
