Video of 2020 Democrat candidate Joe Biden recounting a tale of a run-in with a gang leader in the 1960s has resurfaced after receiving renewed scrutiny on social media.
In video from 2017 at a dedication ceremony for the Joseph R. Biden Jr. Aquatic Center in Wilmington, Delaware, Biden claims he almost came to blows with a gang leader named “Corn Pop” as a lifeguard at an all-black swimming pool in the 1960s, after telling him to get off the diving board.
“Corn Pop was a bad dude, and he ran a bunch of bad boys,” Biden said, adding how “if you used pomade in your hair, you had to wear a bathing cap, and so he was up on the board, wouldn’t listen to me, I said ‘Hey Esther, you, off the board, I’ll come up and drag you off’.”
“Well he came off and he said ‘I’ll meet you outside’,” Biden said, adding that when he went out to his car, “He was waiting there for me with three guys and straight razors. Not a joke.”
Biden then says he defused the situation after apologizing to Corn Pop for calling him by his Christian name.
“And I looked at him, but I was smart then, I said first of all, I said when I tell you to get off the board you get off the board, and I’ll kick you out again, but I shouldn’t have called you Esther Williams, I apologize for that,” Biden said.
Michael Harriot of The Root tweeted a scathing rebuke of Biden’s story, casting doubt on the validity of his claims and noting in his Twitter thread that Biden has told the bizarre story several times.
So, that summer, Biden was the only white lifeguard at Prices Run swimming pool in Brown-Burton Winchester Park. He says he did it—y’all, I SWEAR this is true—”in hopes of learning more about the black community.”
Yes, that’s an actual quote.
— michaelharriot (@michaelharriot) September 14, 2019
Now I don’t know how it works where you live, but in my hood, you don’t actually get a laminated street credential card from the neighborhood thug council but, then again, I’ve never been on the mean streets of Wilmington.
— michaelharriot (@michaelharriot) September 14, 2019
Former NAACP President Richard “Mouse” Smith corroborated some of Biden’s story during the 2017 ceremony, claiming that Biden did indeed tell Corn Pop to get off the diving board and that Mr. Pop did threaten to “cut” him.
Given the Democrat frontrunner has had trouble remembering certain details of stories and even fabricating some altogether, it’s best to take this particular Biden tale with a grain of salt.
As we patiently await the Democrats to narrow down their field of Presidential hopefuls, we can analyze the differences between the Democrat’s leading candidate former Vice President Joe Biden, who maintains a double digit lead over the rest of the Democratic field and our current President Donald J. Trump.
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