A spokesman for Delaware State University says his comments regarding a statement by Joe Biden were mischaracterized in a Washington Times story.
Carlos Holmes issued the statement in the event that a question about Biden’s association with DSU is brought up during tonight’s debate.
According to Carlos Holmes, The Washington Times emailed the university early last week with the simple question “Did Joe Biden ever attend DSU?
“After being forwarded to me for a response, I took it to be the question of a fact-checker or someone who needed clarity over whether he attended Delaware State University or the University of Delaware. The reporter did not mention anything about his campaign statement last year, and at that point I was totally unaware of it,” Holmes wrote. “I responded to the reporter, informing her truthfully that Biden never attended DSU, but that he had been a DSU Commencement keynote speaker twice and that the University awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2003.”
Holmes continued, “It is unfortunate that the Washington Times never asked us to respond to Joe Biden’s comments at the October 2019 town hall in South Carolina. Watched in full context, it is clear that Biden was discussing his long association with Historically Black Colleges and Universities, not making a claim that he had attended Delaware State University. He ‘got his start’ when he announced his first run for the US Senate on our campus in 1972 with then-Delaware State College President Luna Mishoe at his side. For three decades, first as US Senator and then as Vice President, Joe Biden has been our advocate and partner to such a critical extent that in 2003 the University awarded him an honorary doctorate.”
Biden has close ties with the university and its President Tony Allen, a former aide to Biden and a former executive at Bank of America in Wilmington. Allen has been named to Biden’s presidential transition team.
