President Joe Biden was caught in a lie that he taught “political theory” at the University of Pennsylvania. However, there is no evidence that Biden taught a single class at UPenn.
Biden gave a speech at Prince George’s Community College in Maryland on Thursday. The 80-year-old president asserted that democracy is “under attack.”
“Our democracy is under attack, and we got to fight for it,” Biden claimed.
Biden alleged, “I taught at the University of Pennsylvania for four years and I used to teach political theory. And folks, you always hear, every generation has to fight for democracy.”
There is no proof that Biden taught at the University of Pennsylvania.
In April 2022, Biden made a similar mischaracterization of his role at the University of Pennsylvania.
“I’ve been to a lot of university campuses,” Biden told the audience at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, North Carolina. “Matter of fact, for four years, I was a full professor at the University of Pennsylvania. And this is really an impressive place with a lot of impressive students.”
A Politifact fact-check said of the claim: “However, the duration of the position was closer to two years than four, since he was on leave while running for president. Also, his duties might not conform to the full range of activities that the public might associate with the term ‘full professor,’ including teaching semester-long classes, conducting independent research, and handling administrative responsibilities.”
Snopes declared his UPenn role as “honorary.”
The fact-check site added, “He gave lectures and talks to students on campus, but did not teach a full semester’s course load during that time.”
Biden was an honorary professor at the University of Pennsylvania, serving as the Benjamin Franklin presidential professor of the practice from February 2017 to April 2019, according to the university’s website.
The University of Pennsylvania paid Biden more than $900,000, according to financial records.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in 2019:
The former vice president collected $371,159 in 2017 plus $540,484 in 2018 and early 2019 for a vaguely defined role that involved no regular classes and around a dozen public appearances on campus, mostly in big, ticketed events. Penn’s payments to Biden raised eyebrows and questions among some in the community when they were revealed this week as part of the financial disclosures for his presidential campaign. The average salary for a Penn professor was $217,411 in the 2017-18 academic year, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. Biden’s official title was the Benjamin Franklin Presidential Practice Professor — the first person to hold that job — and he also lent his name to the school’s effort to expand its footprint on international affairs.
According to the Daily Pennsylvanian, Biden joined a panel about cancer with UPenn president Amy Gutmann, made an appearance with former Mexico President Felipe Calderon, delivered a lecture to Wharton graduate students, joined a forum on immigration with Jeb Bush, spoke at a voter registration event, did a question-and-answer session, and used a university event to plug his “Promise Me, Dad” book.
In February 2019, the University of Pennsylvania opened the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, D.C. The think tank is self-described as being “founded on the principle that a democratic, open, secure, tolerant, and interconnected world benefits all Americans.”
In April 2022, an ethics watchdog group called for the federal government to investigate anonymous donations from China to the University of Pennsylvania. Between January 2014 and June 2019, UPenn reportedly received $54.6 million in donations from China – including $23.1 million in anonymous donations.
In November 2022, the FBI reportedly searched the Penn Biden Center offices after Biden’s lawyers allegedly found roughly 10 classified documents there.
On Monday, Biden gave a speech touching on the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska. There, Biden spewed another lie.
“Ground Zero in New York — I remember standing there the next day and looking at the building. I felt like I was looking through the gates of Hell, it looked so devastating because the way you could — from where you could stand,” Biden said.
However, Biden was in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 12, 2021.
On Wednesday, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby completely dodged a question about numerous falsehoods that Biden has recently fabricated.
Washington Times reporter Jeff Mordock asked Kirby, “The president has lied about being at Ground Zero the day after the Sept. 11 attacks, falsely claimed he saw the Pittsburgh bridge collapse, claimed his grandfather died in the hospital days before his birth. What is going on with the president? Is he just believing things that didn’t happen did happen, or is he just randomly making stuff up?”
Kirby refused to address the question.
On Thursday, Biden issued another questionable claim when he told a group of rabbis that he was “raised in the synagogues” of Delaware.
“I, you might say, was raised in the synagogues of my state. You think I’m kidding, I’m not,” Biden said during a call ahead of the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah, which begins on Friday.
The New York Post noted, “Biden’s 2007 memoir ‘Promises to Keep’ doesn’t contain a single use of the word ‘synagogue’ and its seven uses of the words ‘Jews’ and ‘Jewish’ all are when discussing history or politics. Beth Shalom is not mentioned. His 2017 book ‘Promise Me, Dad’ has similarly sparse mentions of Judaism.”
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