President Joe Biden is facing some serious criticism after his recent claim that he once taught "political theory" at the University of Pennsylvania.
Biden, according to the New York Post, made the claim on Thursday, during a speech that he gave at Maryland's Prince George's Community College.
Here is the video clip of the part of the speech in which Biden makes the claim:
Biden claims he "taught political theory" at the University of Pennsylvania.
He never taught a single class at UPenn. pic.twitter.com/i7Or2dfp4k
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 14, 2023
In the above clip, which is 16 seconds long, Biden begins by saying, "Our democracy is under attack, and we got to fight for it."
From there, Biden goes on to make the claim that he taught political theory at the University of Pennsylvania.
"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," Biden said.
The problem with this statement is that - like many of the stories that Biden likes to tell about himself - it is simply not true.
Fox News reports: "[T]here is little to no evidence that Biden ever taught "political theory" at the University of Pennsylvania."
The outlet continues:
Though UPenn's website notes that the president was the Benjamin Franklin Presidential Professor of Practice from 2017 to 2021, a Snopes.com fact-check on his previous but similar claim – that he was a "full professor at the University of Pennsylvania" for four years – found that "he did not teach a semester's worth of courses" while in this role.
In fact, Snopes found that Biden's role at the University of Pennsylvania was "honorary," that "he gave lectures and talks to students on campus, but did not teach a full semester’s course load during that time."
This has been confirmed by other fact-checkers, including Politifact, which also found that Biden's stint at the University of Pennsylvania was only for two years - not four.
The best-case scenario for Biden, here, appears to be that he may have given some lectures on political theory in his honorary role at the University of Pennsylvania. But, he certainly did not teach political theory at the University of Pennsylvania for four years as a full-time teacher.
This is just sheer fantasy. It is Biden's latest attempt to make himself appear more accomplished than he actually is.
