US President Joe Biden fessed up that he wasn’t arrested in 1990 trying to visit Nelson Mandela during current South African President Cyril Ramaphosa's visit to the White House on Friday. The statement comes after the POTUS claimed the contrary at least three times in 2020, as per the New York Post.
“One of the great moments of my career was when — the first time Nelson Mandela came to the United States [in 1990]. And we were in — I was a senator at the time, and we met in the Senate Foreign Relations executive committee room. We all stood there and said hello to him and the like and 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,” Biden told Ramaphosa. South Africa’s first president and anti-apartheid activist Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years by the apartheid government.
“And I said once — I said I got arrested. I wasn’t arrested, I got stopped, prevented from moving. But he [Mandela] was extremely gracious,” the US president added.
In 2020, the POTUS repeated several times that he was detained in Soweto, South Africa, in 1990, accompanying statements with vivid details.
“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 Robbens Island,” former vice president Joe Biden said in remarks in Columbia, South Carolina, on February 11, 2020.
“After he [Mandela] got free and became president, he came to Washington and came to my office. He threw his arms around me and said, ‘I want to say thank you.’ I said, ‘What are you thanking me for, Mr. President?’ He said: ‘You tried to see me. You got arrested trying to see me’,” Biden shared in remarks made in Las Vegas on February 16, 2020.
Twitter users turned sarcastic about Biden’s latest confession, although most appeared not to be surprised.
“Surprised he remembered,” said @Mitt302.
“He also graduated top of his class, drove a big rig, took the train to work and was greeted by a guy working the train who called him “Joey Baby”, had three degrees from college and said he went to college on a full scholarship. None of which was true. Plagiarized a speech also,” replied @SteveOBourbon1.
“I'm surprised he didn't say that he had never been to Africa,” noted @2bsteve.
“Liar in Chief,” @ottomul resented.
“Well, it is easier to list the things Joe hasn't lied about. It is ZERO,” @1timby1 agreed.
“I'd be more surprised if he actually told the truth at this point,” @twilight_zone17 said hopelessly.
“And… he’ll lie about it AGAIN!!!” @federalistman1 joked.
“Biden is only good at one thing; Lying and he's not even good at that. 😂😂😂,” laughed @CatWoma24027331.
“He's also falsely claimed to be a teacher, a truck driver and a president,” @ToddisOK remembered.
Marking Biden's one-year term in the White House, CNN categorized all the doubtful claims made by the US president into several groups dedicated to POTUS' own past, Afghanistan, the economy and the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2021, talking to technical college students standing near a truck, Biden claimed that “I used to drive a tractor-trailer,” though only for “part of a summer.” Similarly, he had alleged at a Mack Trucks facility in the same year that, “I used to drive an 18-wheeler, man.” However, the White House later refuted the information.
As for political untrue claims, President Biden asked: “What interest do we have in Afghanistan at this point, with al Qaeda* gone?” in an address to the nation in August 2021. Although al Qaeda wasn’t gone.
About the Corona Virus, the POTUS claimed in July 2021: “If you’re vaccinated, you’re not going to be hospitalized, you’re not going to be in the ICU unit and you’re not going to die,” which turned out to be false as well.
*Al Qaeda is a terrorist organization banned in Russia and many other countries