Tipsheet

Biden Makes Bizarre, False Claim About What He Did After Senate

Former Vice President Joe Biden made a bizarre—and false—claim during an online campaign event Wednesday about what he did after leaving the Senate.

"When I left the United States Senate, I became a professor at the University of Pennsylvania," Biden said while taking questions from young Americans. "And I've spent a lot of time—and the University of Delaware has the Biden School as well, so I've spent a lot of time on campus with college students."

When Biden left the Senate in 2009…it was to become former President Obama’s vice president.

In 2017 he received a title from the University of Pennsylvania as “Benjamin Franklin Presidential Practice Professor," but according to local media and a former spokesperson, he never taught a class.

“We are thrilled to have Vice President Biden here at Annenberg,” Annenberg Dean Delli Carpini said in a statement. “Although he is not scheduled to teach a formal course at this time, we are certain that there will be opportunities for our students to benefit from his presence at Penn.”

In fact, a spokesperson for the former vice president said Biden won’t be teaching at all.

“He will not be teaching classes,” Biden spokesperson Kate Bedingfield told The Daily Pennsylvanian on Tuesday morning. Biden’s work with Penn will be based out of Washington D.C. and Philadelphia, Bedingfield added. (The Daily Pennsylvanian)

Biden made a similar claim last month during a campaign event in South Carolina, saying when he left the White House, rather than "taking a Wall Street job," he “became a teacher, became a professor.”