Biden Admits He Was Not Arrested While Trying to Visit Nelson Mandela

Former Vice President Joe Biden (D) admitted on Friday that he had not actually been arrested in South Africa, a claim he made several times on the campaign trail over the last few weeks.

Biden, who is seeking to regain momentum in the Democratic primary with a win in South Carolina on Saturday, was forced to walk back the remarks after increased media scrutiny of his claims.

During several campaign stops, Biden had told audiences a version of a story in which he “had the great honor of being arrested” alongside a U.N. ambassador while trying to visit Mandela in 30 years ago.

“I guess I wasn’t arrested,” Mr. Biden said in a CNN interview on Friday. “I was stopped. I was not able to move where I wanted to go.”

When Biden initially made the comments, several reporters questioned their veracity.

The U.N. ambassador to the United Nations at the time, Andrew Young, told The New York Times he had never been arrested with Biden “and I don’t think was, either.”

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In the CNN interview, Biden told a different version of the story, saying he was “separated” from a group, but not arrested.

“I said, ‘I’m not going to go in that door that says white only,’” Mr. Biden told CNN about a confrontation with police. “‘I’m going with them.’ They said, ‘You’re not, you can’t move, you can’t go with them,’ and they, and they kept me there.”