No evidence for Biden’s arrest claim in speech

It was just a throwaway line, made to laughter, in a recent presidential speech. The president said he once had been arrested, during a section that recalled some of the heroes of the civil rights movement. He even suggested he had been arrested more than once, as he recalled it was the “first time” he had been arrested.

It’s certainly not the first time he’s said he’s been arrested. Previously, he has said he was arrested trying to see Nelson Mandela in South Africa and for trying to enter an all-female dorm room at Ohio University. He has also suggested he was arrested for wandering onto the Senate floor as a “star-struck kid,” but most times he has indicated he was just given a warning.

But there’s no immediate evidence that Biden was ever arrested.