The Fact-Checking Fried Biden on this One

 
The fact-checkers really came down hard on Joe Biden hard for this one. Not just one, but a bunch of them condemned him. Biden claimed he was arrested while trying to see Nelson Mandela.

"False," concluded Snopes.
"Pants on Fire," said PolitiFact.
"Ridiculous . . . four Pinocchios," wrote The Washington Post.
BBC, CNN, The New York Times and Fox News were among those also who piled on.

Here's the quote (one of them). Biden said this while campaigning in 2020:
"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 honor of being arrested with our U.N. ambassador on the streets of Soweto trying to get to see him on Robbens Island." 

Biden was a member of a congressional delegation that went to South Africa in 1976. It appears officials there tried to separate Biden from the Black members of the delegation, allowing him to pass through a gate for Whites only. Biden would have none of it. Perhaps in the whole process, he was locked behind a gate. So, you have him being stopped by police and being "detained," in a sense. 

It is honorable that he stood with his Black friends. It shows principle. But embellishing and exaggerating the story is not honorable, and does not reflect a man who is strict in truth. Perhaps this story -- as much as any -- reflects a flaw in the man. On more than one occasion, he has exaggerated. I believe he has even admitted exaggerating it is a weakness of his.

Biden made his false claim while campaigning in South Carolina, which has a large percentage of African-American voters. Bernie Sanders, who had solid credentials in civil rights (truthfully having once been arrested in a protest) was leading in the race. Biden hoped to gain votes. But he should have kept his story to how he stood with his African-American friends by refusing to go through a Whites-only gate. Did his memory fail him? It had been more than 40 years ago. In his desire to sway voters, did he let his memory trick him? Who knows, but if you make a mistake like that, you are still responsible. Learn to be more careful. Snopes and PolitiFact will come down hard if you are not.

Two more notes: He was slightly off on the name of where Mandela was. It was Robben Island, not the plural Robbens. Second, if he was in on the streets of Soweto, that is more than 760 miles from Robben Island. Something's off there.