President Joe Biden Says He Was 'Arrested Standing On The Porch With A Black Family'

On Friday, April 26, President Joe Biden went on ‘The Howard Stern Show’ where he claimed he once “got arrested” trying to defend the civil rights of Black Americans.

This is not the first time the President has spoken about this so-called arrest, but it should be noted that there has been no evidence of the incident happening.

On ‘The Howard Stern Show,’ Biden told Stern that, before his mother's passing, they recalled when Biden was supposedly arrested.

“She said, ‘Joey, let me — remember’ — true story, she said — ‘Remember when they were desegregating Lynnfield, the neighborhood … suburbia — and I told you — and there was a Black family moving in, and there was — people were down there protesting," he recalled. "I told you not to go down there, and you went down, remember that? And you got arrested standing on the porch with a Black family? And they brought you back, the police?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, Mom, I remember that.’”

It should be noted that when The Washington Post and PolitiFact looked into Biden’s possible arrest during a civil rights protest, they found no evidence of this claim.

According to The Washington Post, in 2017, Biden referenced the alleged arrest when speaking about his late mother. “My mom, God love her, she sat there the whole time, and my mom, after my dad passed away, we convinced her to move in with us, and she was reluctant to do," he said.

"Anyway she was sitting there, and I turned to her and said, ‘Honey you haven’t said anything’ and she said, ‘Joey’ — it’s a true story," he added. "She said, ‘Let me get this straight, remember when you were 14 years old, and the real estate guys sold the house to a Black couple in an area — in a neighboring development called Graylyn Crest, I mean Carrcroft, and I said, ‘Yeah mom.’ ‘Remember when I told you not to go down there, honey, because everybody is protesting, and you got arrested standing with the family on the porch,' and I said, ‘Yeah, mom.’ True story."

In 2018, he once again brought up the situation, claiming that his mom said, "Joey, remember at 15 years old, and that real estate agent sold a house to the Black couple in Lynnfield."

"The neighboring, this was in suburban sprawl, the neighboring neighborhood," Biden recalled. His mom then supposedly said, "I told you not to go down there because of the protests, and you went down, and you got arrested because you were standing on the porch with the Black couple?"

"I said, ‘Yeah, mom. I remember that,’ “ Biden added of the incident at the time.

While all of these stories have similarities, there are subtle changes. For example, in some of the stories, Biden says the protest took place in Lynnfield, Delaware, but in another story, he says the protest took place in Carrcroft.

Another inconsistency is regarding the arrest itself. In some stories, Biden claims he was arrested for standing on the porch with the Black couple. In others, he says the police brought him home after standing on the porch.

Plus, when Biden was running for President in 2020, he claimed he was “arrested” as a U.S. senator when he tried to visit Nelson Mandela when he was imprisoned. 

In February 2020, Biden said, “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 U.N. ambassador on the streets of Soweto trying to get to see him on Robbens Island.”

He added, “After [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.’”

According to CNN, no evidence of this arrest was ever found. Biden later told CNN that he had been “stopped” in South Africa, and he did not mean to say arrested.