Politics

FACT CHECK: Did Joe Biden Say, ‘No Ordinary American Cares About Their Constitutional Rights’?

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An image shared on Facebook claims former Vice President Joe Biden said, “No ordinary American cares about their constitutional rights.”

The Facebook post reiterates, “Yes, America, this idiot said this!”

Verdict: False

There is no evidence that Biden ever made the comment.

Fact Check:

Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, is a popular target for misinformation. In this case, the meme suggests Biden made the remark about constitutional rights.

There is, however, no evidence that he ever made the statement. The Daily Caller News Foundation didn’t find any media reports attributing the quote to him, and it appears nowhere on his social media accounts. ProPublica’s archive of his deleted tweets also has no matching or similar remarks.

The alleged quote, which has been circulating online for years, bears some resemblance to a comment Biden made during a 2013 speech about gun control at Western Connecticut State University. At one point in his speech, Biden said, “No law-abiding citizen in the United States of America has any fear that their constitutional rights will be infringed in any way. None, zero.” The fake quote appears to be a distortion of that 2013 statement.

Shortly after Biden’s speech, Breitbart published an article that put up the headline “Biden: No Ordinary American Cares About Their Constitutional Rights, Facebook Questions are Plants.” The headline may have given some readers the false impression of a direct quote from Biden when it was not.

Biden’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.