Delaware State University officials are challenging stories that claimed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden lied about attending the school.
Biden told a crowd last year that he “got started out of an HBCU, Delaware State.” HBCUs are historically black colleges and universities.
Carlos Holmes, a spokesman for the school, confirmed to The Epoch Times that Biden didn’t attend the college. But he said the Washington Times didn’t give him a chance to respond to Biden’s actual comments.
“No he did not attend, but it’s unfortunate that the Washington Times never asked me to respond to Joe Biden’s comments, because that’s what everybody’s focusing on,” Holmes said.
Holmes said he watched the video of the remarks from last year.
“It is clear that Biden was talking about his long association with historically black colleges and universities, not talking about attending Delaware State,” Holmes said.
The explicit reference to the university was a reference to announcing his first run for Congress, Holmes added.
“That’s what he was walking about. This was in 1972,” he said. The president of the school was by Biden’s side when he made his announcement.
Biden spent decades in the U.S. Senate representing Delaware before serving as vice president from 2009 to 2017.
Biden later made commencement speeches at the school in 2003 and 2016 and was awarded an honorary doctoral degree in 2016.
Delaware State University’s current president, Tony Allen, who used to work as a speechwriter for Biden during his Senate tenure, was named to the Biden campaign’s transition team advisory council.
Biden has been an “advocate and partner” of Delaware State, Holmes said, adding, “He is definitely a friend to Delaware State University.”
Biden graduated from the University of Delaware in 1965.
