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President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden participate in the first presidential debate Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020, at Case Western University and Cleveland Clinic, in Cleveland. (AP) President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden participate in the first presidential debate Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020, at Case Western University and Cleveland Clinic, in Cleveland. (AP)

President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden participate in the first presidential debate Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020, at Case Western University and Cleveland Clinic, in Cleveland. (AP)

Noah Y. Kim
By Noah Y. Kim September 30, 2020

Biden never said he went to Delaware State University

If Your Time is short

• Biden once said that he got his "start" at at the school because he received support there when he announced his bid for Senate on the campus. 

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During a heated exchange near the start of the first 2020 presidential debate, President Donald Trump said that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden had forgotten the name of his college and falsely claimed that he had gone to Delaware State University, a historically Black university. 

Trump’s claim was putting words in Biden’s mouth. The former vice president never said that he attended Delaware State. 

Trump appeared to be referring to a remark that Biden made at a town hall in Florence, S.C., where he said that he got his "start" at DSU. In context, it’s clear that Biden wasn’t implying that he went to the university, but referencing the support he received from the school in 1972 when he announced his run for U.S. Senate on the campus. 

The university itself pushed back on conservative media outlets reporting that Biden falsely claimed to have attended the school. 

Featured Fact-check

For the record, Biden attended the University of Delaware. 

We rate this claim False. 

This fact check is available at IFCN’s 2020 US Elections FactChat #Chatbot on WhatsApp. Click here, for more.

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