Even the White House said it wasn’t sure whether President Biden lied last week when he told graduates at the U.S. Naval Academy that he turned down an appointment to Annapolis in 1965.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday that she “did not hear that part” of Mr. Biden‘s commencement speech. She promised a reporter that she would check on the accuracy of the president’s claim.
On Friday, Mr. Biden told graduates in Annapolis, “I was appointed to the Academy in 1965 by a senator who I was running against in 1972.”
But Mr. Biden graduated from the University of Delaware in 1965, so an academy appointment at that stage of his life would have been very unlikely.
He told the Naval Academy graduates, “I didn’t come to the Academy because I wanted to be a football star. And you had a guy named Staubach and Bellino here. So I went to Delaware.”
Navy Quarterback Roger Staubach graduated in 1965 and halfback Joe Bellino graduated in 1961.
Mr. Biden was a standout player on the football team at Archmere Academy, a prep school in Claymont, Delaware, according to various reports.
But his college football career never fully materialized.
According to press accounts and Mr. Biden’s 2007 memoir, he joined the freshman team at the University of Delaware at a time when freshmen were not eligible to play varsity football. He quit the team after the fall semester.
* Article from: The Washington Times
