Ep. 169 - When Joe Biden began pretending he was an activist in the Civil Rights Movement :: Part 2 of 2.

Jan 31, 2020

In the 2020 campaign Joe Biden flat out lying to say that he was an activist in the Civil Rights Movement. Today Shaun tells us the story of when this began and why.

Play Episode

yesterday on the breakdown we began confronting the cultural appropriation of Joe Biden where he's not exaggerating he's not in balancing he is claiming to have done things in the civil rights movement that he never did actions he never took protests sit-ins and marches he was never a part of he didn't just say these things in the past he's saying them in this current campaign cycle today I'm going to do

deeper I'm going to show you and play for you the origins of this for Joe Biden we're going to go deep it's disturbing I can't explain fully why he's doing this but I do think I have an idea this is Shaun King and you were listening to the breakdown

breakdown breakdown

in 1987 Joe Biden made a huge leap from being a younger 40 year old senator in New Hampshire he decided he was going to go ahead and run for president and as he began delivering speeches across the country

he started saying that he did things in the civil rights movement that he never did sit-ins marches protests demonstrations and on February 26 of 1987 Joe Biden began giving speeches in New Hampshire super close to Delaware and and his idea was I I need to shore up my base in this region in Delaware New Hampshire in the area so he began giving speeches in New Hampshire as he was preparing to

run for president in a speech that I'm about to play you he begins making multiple false claims about Marching In the Civil Rights Movement saying quote when I marched in the Civil Rights Movement I did not marked with a 12-point program I marched with tens of thousands of others to change attitudes and we changed attitudes let me play this clip for you when I March in the Civil Rights Movement I'm

arch with tens of thousands of others to change attitudes attitudes except Joe Biden never marched in the Civil Rights Movement I don't mean he March some he never marched at all he didn't march with or without a 12-point program that was a complete fabrication now seven months after this Joe Biden explicitly admitted as much when his campaign crashed and burned what's doubly

about this though is that multiple staffers on his campaign begged him to stop telling this lie they knew everybody in his campaign knew that he had never marched in the Civil Rights Movement but he continued to tell the lie anyway now I spoke directly to Matt flegenheimer of the New York Times who really broke that audio clip that I just played who really broke that audio

so clip where it was first Unearthed that in 1988 1987 Joe Biden's campaign staffers were telling him that you you can't say these things and I asked Matt flegenheimer of the New York Times Matt like where did you get that information and here's what he told me he said Shawn is all in a book that you've got to get it's a book by Richard Ben Kramer he said man is some massive book it's called

What It Takes the way to the White House and it's all about the 1988 presidential race so I bought the book as soon as Matt and I hung up the phone and Richard Ben Kramer who won the Pulitzer Prize was a brilliant writer in the book is the book is amazing it has over a thousand interviews in the book which is seen by many as the single best book ever written on

presidential politics it's exhausted and right there plain as day our Joe Biden staffers talking about how desperately they wanted Biden to stop telling the lies about working in the Civil Rights Movement he acknowledged to them that they were right that he should stop but he kept on telling the lies anyway and Kramer in chapter 25 this is what I'm about to read to you is a

a section in chapter 25 from Richard Ben Kramer speaking to campaign staff

how he started in the Civil Rights Movement remember the marches you remember how that felt this is him parroting Joe Biden in the people are nodding in the crowd and Biden's got them

trouble is Joe never marched he was in high school playing football and the guru's would shake their heads Joe that's not marching and Joe would say I know then a week later another crowd and Joe would do it again it's a quote from Joe in Richard been Kramer's book folks when I started in public life in the Civil Rights Movement we march to change attitudes I remember what galvanized me boo

Connor and his dogs I'm serious in Selma and Joe's voice drops to an urgent whisper absolutely made my blood run cold remember

but Joe Biden and never seen such things with his own eyes and he continued to suggest all over the campaign Trail not only that he had marched but that he had gone down to Salman Birmingham and protested almost as a freedom rider

turns out though that Joe Biden didn't just tell these lies on the campaign Trail he had been telling those lies for years in 1983 Joe Biden was a keynote speaker at the Democratic conference in Maine and falsely claimed their that he participated in sit-ins and movie theaters and restaurants to desegregate them when he was 17 years old in 1960

but listen to me

Joe Biden did no such thing in fact nobody in Wilmington Delaware or anywhere in Delaware did sit-ins at movie theaters or restaurants in 1960 in fact sit-ins at segregated restaurants did not begin in Delaware and sit-ins never happened

at the segregated movie theaters like the Rialto that Joe Biden sometimes falsely claim to helped desegregate a 1960 sit-ins did not begin in Delaware until 1961 when Joe Biden was off to college and they never and I talked to people who participated in these events there were no sit-ins at movie theaters let me explain it

to get into those movie theaters to sit in them you would have to be white first off and you would purchase a ticket so African Americans never sat in and movie theaters and the only way that whites could sit in is if they bought a ticket so Joe Biden over and over and over again for decades was saying that he did sit-ins at those theaters and every time he says that he foolishly exposes the reality and he was

over there

but protesters were there though I spoke to them not a single protester or organizer who demonstrated in Wilmington or anywhere else in Delaware for that matter has even one faint memory of ever seeing Joe Biden at any such event in 1961 Biden said was the year he did it or in 61 when he was off to college or 62 or 63 and here's the thing the efforts of these

as in demonstrators were chronicled almost daily in local papers and in the new book there is a new book called historic movie theaters of Delaware I've read the book that book is seen as the leading book on the topic and the form of protest that took place at those theaters it was not sit-ins

but they had Relentless picket lines outside of the theater in those picket lines did not start in 1960 when Joe Biden says when I say Biden says if you listen to the previous episode Biden says he did all of this when he was 17 in high school in 1960 the picket lines did not begin at the Rialto Theater until November of 1962 and They Carried all the way through until 1963 Joe Biden

off to college when the theaters were finally desegregated first they were desegregated by choice the theater finally broke down and do segregated in May of 1963 and then by law in December of 1963 but let me play this clip for you this is Joe Biden he says when I was 17 that's 1960 I participated in sit-ins to desegregate restaurants and movie theaters

and my stomach turned upon hearing the voices of faubus that's the Democratic governor of Arkansas and Wallace that's the Democratic governor of Alabama my soul raged upon seeing Bull Connor and his dogs let me play this clip for you when I was 17 years old

I participated in sit-ins

to desegregate restaurants and movie houses in my state and my stomach turned upon hearing the voices of fall bus and Barnett

and my soul raged upon seeing the dogs of Bull Connor

and when I was 25 years of age I Stood Beside a railroad track and Wilmington Delaware with my sister Valerie and openly wept as Robert F Kennedy's funeral train passed by

but now at the age of 40

as a Democratic leader of the Judiciary Committee

as the leader of that committee I had to be reminded that Mississippi still has a dual registration system for voting

here I became involved in politics because of civil rights and now I'm a force in politics in spite of mounting civil wrongs

well the heed the voice is in our party who say much progress has been made we must now wait for the Reagan Revolution to play itself out to those voices I say we cannot wait for our soul will be corrupted by our silence

as you will notice there that is Joe Biden in 1983 and he's also hinting again at actually being in the Deep South during the Civil Rights Movement that's why when he finally broke down and apologized in 1987 he said no I confess I was not in Selma and then he said I was not anywhere else I was a suburbanite kid and I did not March I was not an activist

but in February of 1987 Joe Biden served as a keynote speaker at the California Democratic Convention and the audio that I'm about to play For You Joe again rekindles the lie that he participated in sit-ins at restaurants and movie theaters and never happened here's what he says he says when I was 17 years old that's 1960 I participated in sit-ins to desegregate restaurants and movie theaters of Wilmington Delaware

we're except Biden never once participated in a sit-in demonstration in his entire life not in Wilmington or anywhere else let me play the clip for I share with many of you in this room the distinction of being part of the post-war generation that's the largest in our history

when I was 17 years old like many of you I participated in sit-ins to desegregate the restaurants and movie houses of Wilmington Delaware

when I was 18 years old my spirits soared on that freezing January day when I heard a young president call us to Greatness

when I was 20 years old my heart was full as I listened to that eloquent courageous black man share his dream for racial equality with all of us

when I was 25

I stood by the railroad tracks with my sister Valerie and openly wept with hundreds of other delawareans is Robert Kennedy's funeral train passed Slowly by

many of you

shared these and other experiences speaking to a group of reporters in 1987 Biden again falsely claimed to have both marks and participated in sit-ins during the Civil Rights Movement again he did neither in his campaign admitted that he did none of these things in September of 87 but again he continued this video I'm about to play for you is from Iowa in May of 87 Biden this is the crescendo of his speech

in falsely claims to have marched in the civil rights movement and in the anti-war movement against Vietnam he never did that

I like many of you in this room share the distinction of being part of that so-called Baby Boom generation I like many of you in this country are part of that generation that is the largest in our history

and you know how are you we changed America we changed America not merely by our boats but by ideas as well as our ideals when we marched we did not Mark to the 14-point program we march to change attitude and ladies and gentlemen whether or not it was civil rights the women's movement preserving the environment or ending the war in Vietnam you know

only altered the face of this country I want you to pay particular attention in the in the audio I'm about to play for you

to the flippant vagueness of how Joe Biden describes what he did in the civil rights movement in 1960 he is speaking to a group of reporters here and here's what he says he says yeah I came out of the Civil Rights Movement I was one of those guys that sat in and marched and all that stuff

all that stuff but like he says it that way super vague and kind of flipping an almost disrespectful yeah I was one of those guys that set in and marched and all that stuff he says it that way because it never happened this is not how one who actually did anything in the Civil Rights Movement would describe the courageous work of activism people lost their lives people who actually

we sat in one in Delaware they were widely arrested sometimes assaulted Joe Biden doesn't describe it never gives details or color to says yeah I came out of the Civil Rights Movement I was one of those guys that set in and marched and all that stuff because he never did it

in listen this is not even how Joe Biden himself tell stories about his own life listen to this I'm going to play the clip for you he's vague and irreverent because he did not actually do these things by the way I know every one of my generation is supposed to be only interested in BMWs and mbas and they don't care about anything so we're told let me remind some of you

that in 1960 they said the same thing there was no great movement on the campuses in 1959 and 58 and 60 I came out of the Civil Rights Movement I was one of those guys that sat in and March and all that stuff

but now it was moving then

but somebody came along and struck the match the Kindle the bonfire now when pressed further on this Joe Biden and his 1988 campaign team eventually admitted that he never wants marched in the civil rights movement and that he never wants participated in any sit-ins and any restaurants and Wilmington or along Route 40 anywhere else in Delaware when his campaign was finally over his spokesperson Larry

ask you said that Biden may have helped in some non sit in kind of way at just one movie theater and one restaurant but Biden over the course of his life has named and claimed countless movie theaters countless restaurants all over Wilmington up and down Route 40

and the restaurant that Joe Biden most and I need you to understand what I'm about to tell you

this what I'm about to tell you should have tanked his life in politics the restaurant that Joe Biden most often told people for decades that he helped desegregate as a 17 year old boy in 1960 is a restaurant in Wilmington called the charcoal grill

and Joe has a dubious and deeply problematic story about how he helped desegregate that now this is way before the campaign on December 26 of 1982 nowhere near running for president in 87 or 88 shed on December 26 of 1982 in a story about the history of the charcoal pit in the Sunday News Journal the leading newspaper there

in Wilmington Joe Biden said he loved the charcoal pit and it's the articles about the charcoal pit he said he loved it and he said he only had one negative memory there and it was from his senior year in high school in 1960 he said I organized a civil rights boycott because they wouldn't serve black kids one of our football players was black literally only one there was only one black student there in his entire class

and we went there to the charcoal pit and they said they wouldn't serve him and I said to the others hey we can't go in there so we all left it was very brief and not nasty but my clear intent was to boycott that's that's the quote from Joe Biden

but here's the thing

that lone black student in the class is now a doctor dr. Francis Hutchins the lone black student who was on that football team he said that's not what happened at all Joe Biden says they went to the charcoal pit saw they weren't serving black students and said hey we can't go here even if you did that that's not a boycott but Francis Hutchins dr. Francis such and said no that never happened

five years after Joe Biden gave that interview about the charcoal pit that I just told you about in September of 1987 as Joe Biden's campaign is in major trouble he's been caught lying about his grades in law school he plagiarized for different speeches from from from Labour party leader Neil kinnock from Robert Kennedy from John F Kennedy from Humphrey and others and so the Philadelphia Inquirer

tracks down that lone black student dr. Francis Hutchins and as investigative reporters begin digging into all of Biden's lies they found that even his loan story about desegregating the charcoal grill the charcoal pit that that was a lie here's their report this is a quote from the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1987

that student who is now a Philadelphia physician says that Biden's group was not even aware of what was going on because when dr. Francis Hutchins was ejected from the restaurant it happened out of their Vision it was only later after all of the white students had eaten and left the restaurant that they even found out from the black student what happened this is a quote from dr. Francis

Hutchins they weren't even aware of what happened I was only 16 then he said it was my problem and my battle for me to work out he says they were oblivious to it until later on

now Joe Biden tells it that they get to the charcoal pit and he's saying we can't go here they can serve Francis and they all left that never happened Francis said no actually they all ate their meal and left when they were done and didn't even know what happened to me he says quote they were oblivious to it and it wasn't that just that that Joe Biden made these things up one time

these things have been written about Joe Biden hundreds of times in the leading newspapers all over the country I have found statements in the Washington Post the New York Times all of Delaware's newspapers all the way back to as early as 1975 in September of 1975 soon after Joe Biden was elected to the United States Senate he began working with lifelong bigots and white supremacist to pass and block

all types of of anti integration legislation

and in the Washington Post from 1975 we see Joe Biden claiming that he was a part of the Civil Rights Movement it says this is the 1975 article in the Washington Post is says Joe Biden has accumulated some very credible civil rights credential credentials since adolescence participating in a high school restaurant boycott and in sit-ins along u.s. 40

those things never happen The 1975 in one of the largest leading newspapers in the country these lies are being reported about Joe Biden ever corrects them it's my understanding that he told Eric Wentworth of the Washington Post these lies these are outright Fabrications and they were painfully debunked not only by his lone black high school classmate in the case of that restaurant boycott but by historians by civil rights leaders

by Joe Biden's own timeline because here's the thing the sit-ins along us 40 that biding claim to participate in happened long after him being a high school student at the age of 17 by the time Biden started running for president in 1987 he had promoted lies about his work in the Civil Rights Movement for the entire previous generation

in the morning news in Delaware also in September of 1975 they have an article where they repeat the same Claim about buying and saying as a young man he took part in sit-ins to desegregate restaurants along us 40 in Delaware it never happened Joe Biden never participated in a sit-in along u.s. 40 and Delaware first off Joe Biden said the only year he participated

I painted in the Civil Rights Movement was in 1960 when he was 17 years old and when Joe Biden was caught in his lying scandal in 1987 again Biden himself said none of this ever happened in his spokesperson reduced it to the lone incident at the charcoal grill and something at a movie theater the sit-ins and protests along Route 40 and Delaware did not even take place until 1961 and 1962 inviting was off to college he said they

when he was in high school at the age of 17

secondly those protests along Route 40 in Delaware they were organized primarily by core the Congress for racial equality and they were primarily organized with adults who drove into Delaware and busting to Delaware from States all over the country these were trained experienced activists and organizers in fact in Joe Biden's autobiography Biden says that great length that one of the

primary reasons he decided to take a summer job away from college at a segregated swimming pool in Wilmington in 1962 was so that he could finally get to know black people and black life personally

had Biden as he now says been mentored in black churches and protested and set in with black people all over Wilmington in 1960 he was doing all of those things as he said last week in South Carolina as he said two weeks ago in Delaware last month in Iowa Joe Biden saying that at the age of 17 he went to black churches and was loved on and trained by their pastor

and leaders if that happened in 1960 why do you and your autobiography say you took the job at a pool in Wilmington because you had no direct experience with black people in this would give you that experience and doesn't add up now I spoke directly with dr. Raymond Arsenal he is an expert in the Civil Rights Movement as well as a history professor at the University of South Florida and dr. Austin are

Arsenal wrote one of the most important texts on the Civil Rights Movement isn't it's entitled Freedom Riders 1961 is the single most sourced book ever written on Freedom Riders and the struggle for racial Justice in 1961

in doctor Arsenault confirmed for me that out of hundreds of interviews and Source documents he has never seen a shred of evidence that Joe Biden ever participated in a single sitting along Route 40 in Delaware because those primary activists and organizers of those actions including Dwayne Nichols who kept meticulous records of the route 40 protest and Betsy Marston

who managed much of the work at the University of Delaware who they've also come forward to say that Biden was not a part of their circles and that no records ever suggest that he ever participated in these things but without fail when I asked elected officials or legendary activists who I should speak with in Wilmington they each said that I should speak directly to the first black mayor of Wilmington James seals who move

Wilmington at the age of 25 in 1959 and has called Delaware home for the past 61 years and activist and organizer himself he participated in the actual pickets at the Rialto which did not happen in 1960 as Joe Biden said when he said he was a 17 year old high school student they happen in 1962 and 63 and Jim seals confirm mayor Jim seals confirm that they weren't sit-ins

he participated in them and was arrested in sit-ins at segregated restaurants but what was happening at the Rialto movie theater they weren't citizens they were pickets outside of the theater sometimes they called them stand-ins and like almost every other young activists in the area listen mayor Jim seals in 1960 went to hear dr. King for the only time dr. King ever came to Delhi

where now you have to understand Joe Biden says that in 1960 he's a seventeen-year-old doing sit-ins and trainings of black churches in that he loved dr. King

but when King came to Delaware Biden did not go now Biden says that 1960 was his Heyday of activism but he's strangely didn't go here King when he came to town mayor seals and fact said that the first time he ever remembered meeting Joe Biden was around 1970 when Biden was running for office I spoke to Larry Morris another veteran of the civil rights movement in Wilmington he said he had no personal

collection of Biden ever being a part of the work and all of this leads me to a man named Mouse let me break it down bring it down yeah all of this leads me to a man named house in fact his name is Richard Mouse Smith and he first met Joe Biden in the summer of

1862 when Biden was a lifeguard at the segregated swimming pool in town Biden was 19 and mouse was just 13 years old back in July listen to this something weird is happening okay back in July of 2019 in the weeks after Joe Biden and Kamala Harris had a public disagreement do you remember that that they fell out in one of the democratic debates over the issue of busing

and integration and segregation and Joe Biden's team began going on the defense and they began shopping a story to news outlets all over the country and a couple Outlets picked it up

so in July of 2019 Joe Biden and Kamala Harris fall out publicly over Biden's record on busing and school integration and the Biden campaign they begin floating Mouse out to news outlets as someone interesting they could interview that would vouch for Biden's character

in a few places picked it up like blabbetty and Washington Post they took the bait now here's the thing

are you trying to tell me that mouse that he has an open letter in blabbetty you trying to tell me that mouse found and knows about blabbetty blabbetty.com and he found them and said hey will you have this open letter in fact I reached out to staff at blah V at the Washington Post and spoke to people who said no the Biden campaign was floating this

and blabbetty published an op-ed written by Richard Richard Mouse Smith and the Washington Post wrote a great long-form story on Mouse in his life and how it all intersected with Joe Biden it was actually brilliantly written

but only one thing that Mouse said is confusing me it doesn't add up and I called the author of The Washington Post piece Robert Samuels

and I immediately asked Robert for clarification because I thought Robert had made a mistake here's what it says in Roberts article it says one day this is a quote one day in 1965 Mouse told Biden that some politicians and preachers were going to pick it outside of the Rialto the last segregated movie theater downtown

I'll be there Joe Biden said this is still the story that was Biden's first known civil rights protest

that doesn't add up in the summer of night let me tell you why in the summer of 1965 Joe Biden was 22 years old and had just graduated from college now according to every statement he's ever made about his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement including every lie every book every speech including the very speeches that Joe Biden gave this week and last week and the week before that and last month Joe said that he

has protesting as a 17 year old high school student in 1960 never once in his life has Joe Biden said he attended a protest in 1965 after his senior year of college in fact I searched local Regional and National Archives and not a single protest was documented at the Rialto Theater in 1965

more than that it was formally and legally integrated in 1963

but here's the strange thing the author of the story follow me here something something weird has happened the author of that story in the Washington Post Robert Samuels said he called the Biden campaign to confirm the dates of the story because I told Robert I said Robert those dates are off Biden says he began doing sit-ins at the Rialto is a 17 year old high school student in 1960

and Robert Samuel said when he called the Biden campaign they confirmed that what mouse said was true

that that protest at the Rialto Theater in 1965 was Joe Biden's first protest

now without saying it the campaign basically confirmed that everything Joe Biden is saying right now on the campaign Trail is a lie because Joe Biden is saying he literally just said it last week at Bethlehem Baptist Church in South Carolina when I was 17 year old and 17 year old high school student I would go to black churches and they would train me and we would decide on whether or not we were going to go pick it at the do sit-ins at

the Rialto

but the Washington Post confirm with Joe Biden's campaign that that didn't happen because they wrote In The Washington Post that Biden's first protest was in 1965 at a theater that was already integrated by choice and by law in 1963 I'll tell you what I think has happened

I think they pushed Mouse out there to tell some stories about Joe Biden

and mouse didn't have his facts and so Mouse said it happened in 1960 I bumped into Joe where were they bumping into each other all right where did that happen Joe Biden's a 22 year old college student is about to get married and have a family he's actually graduated from college where do where is you bumping into my house what you bumped into Mouse where there were no text messages or emails you saw miles where

and he told you some politicians and preachers are about to do a picket at the Rialto and you just went and it was in 1965 your campaign confirm that

but it's already integrated what I'm not I'm not getting it because here's the thing Joe Biden has said five times on the record in the past two months that he did loads of civil rights work from protest to training in black churches all in 1960 when he was just 17 years old but Mouse said it was one fluke moment that happened five years later the campaign said yeah it was its first time was five years

after that records don't even show anything like that happening

here's what I know

when you tell a tale like this it then requires other people to either be silent with your dishonesty or to begin lying with you

and that's what's happening this morning before I began recording this episode of the breakdown I spoke to Legendary civil rights leaders who actually put their lives on the line

and what they're having to come to grips with is do they speak out on this

knowing that this is basically what veterans in the military would call Stolen Valor that is to say in claim that you fought in participated in the war when you weren't even in the military that's what Joe Biden is doing here

to Garner black votes to Garner credibility he's telling stories about his activism that never actually happened

listen I've got to run I hope that you listen to these two episodes and are disturbed by the dishonesty and fraudulent claims of Joe Biden to have participated in a movement he had nothing to do with it is the height of disrespect I think he has to own up to it I think he should step down I think he should acknowledge that he has made all of this

an n and fess up and own up to it and apologize to the people who actually did this work we'll see if that happens but I just want to thank so many people who helped make these two episodes possible of course our pod casting director lasondra to Willis the senior producer of these episodes will is your hard work on editing and sound and all that was just beautiful on both of these episodes thank you to Eric Barrel the managing editor

Northstar who has helped me do a lot of the research here thank you to the Delaware Historic Society thank you to all of the brave men and women and families and others in Delaware who spoke to me about this to the historians and Scholars and others think you as well we're going to keep on pushing all right take care everybody break it down

break it down break it down break break break break break break break down