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CNN panel cracks up over Biden’s false claim he marched for civil rights as he’s busted for plagiarism

June 5, 2019 | | Print Article

Joe Biden’s decades-old claim that he marched during the civil rights movement sparked a round of laughter during a CNN panel discussion with Jake Tapper.

The CNN anchor spoke on “The Lead with Jake Tapper” Tuesday about the former vice president’s false claim in 1987, citing a report in The New York Times this week which noted how Biden continued to tell the story of his supposed involvement in the civil rights movement, despite being told not to.

(Video: CNN)

“When I marched in the civil rights movement, I did not march with a 12-point program,” Biden told a New Hampshire audience in 1987. “I marched with tens of thousands of others to change attitudes. And we changed attitudes.”

According to The Times, as read by Tapper:  “More than once, advisers had gently reminded Mr. Biden of the problem with this formulation: He had not actually marched during the civil rights movement. And more than once, Mr. Biden assured them he understood — and kept telling the story anyway.”

“That is really, really weird,” Tapper commented with a laugh.

“When he gets very comfortable out on the stump speaking and other things, he has tended to embellish. He has tended to, you know, make things sound slightly rosier than they are,” CNN Senior White House correspondent Jeff Zeleny said.

“His aides have went back to say, look, he was in office marching for the idea of civil rights, but was not actually marching in the streets. But that would not fly as much,” Zeleny added, prompting laughter from the panelists.

“That’s not what the word marching means,” Tapper interjected. “I know, you’re just telling what they said.”

“But in the day of Twitter and Instagram, there would be pictures of him not marching,” Zeleny explained. “So, you cannot get away with that. That’s his big challenge, can he modernize, and has he sort of brushed away all of those old tendencies he had that ultimately ended up with him dropping out before the Iowa Caucuses by — because he plagiarized a speech.”

“That is exactly the kind of story that is the picture-perfect moment for a debate,” former Hillary Clinton spokeswoman Karen Finney said, arguing that debates will be “consequential” as they will force topics like this to the forefront.

The Times report noted that Biden’s failed 1988 presidential campaign was a “calamity” and that the Democrat was “prone to embellishment.” The report also claimed that many of the 2020 contender’s “traits” continue to “color” Biden’s life more than 32 years later.

Twitter users weighed in on the unusually strong stand against Biden – and the panel’s laughter over his false claims.

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Frieda Powers
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