Ubiquitous
2024-04-30 02:05:03 UTC
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Permalinkpresidents discredited claim that he was arrested "on the streets of Soweto"
in apartheid South Africa when trying to see civil rights leader Nelson
Mandela.
At the time, though, the trip generated scrutiny for another reasonBidens
use of federal funds, and the decision to have his brother tag along in lieu
of staff. Bidens political rivals claimed the trip highlighted the senators
corrupt tendencies. The trip even drew the eyes of the State Department,
where Henry Kissinger spent his last day as secretary combing over Bidens
receipts, previously unreported State Department cables show.
"Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. Traveled with [Congressional delegation Rep.
Charles Diggs (D., Mich.)] ... Would appreciate embassy cabling amounts
returned and pouching xeroxed copies of recipients," Kissinger wrote to the
U.S. embassies in Dakar, Freetown, Nairobi, and the American consulate in
Cape Town on Jan. 19, 1977.
This report is based on State Department cables obtained through Freedom of
Information Act requests and records from the time of Bidens trip. Together,
they show that Biden has long drawn scrutiny for using the perks of elected
office to benefit family members.
Bidens brother, Frank, was a senior at San Francisco State University in
November 1976. Biden himself was halfway through his first Senate term and
was scheduled to join a congressional junket to Africa. The trip, cosponsored
by The African Institute, brought Biden and other lawmakers to three
countries to bolster ties between the United States and African governments.
Biden treated the trip more like a vacation. He opted not to bring any
members of his staff, as is common for congressional junkets, and instead
arranged for Frank to join. Biden obtained special permission from the State
Department to bring him. Records obtained through a Freedom of Information
Act request show that Frank Biden did not have a passport before the trip,
and a State Department cable indicates he was issued one three days before
his departure.
"I didnt take my staff, so he was my staff, and for company," Biden said in
1978. "I wasnt married then."
Years later, Biden would say that this trip brought him to the heart of
apartheid South Africa. After his arrest story was discredited, Biden claimed
he was "detained" and "separated" by South African officials in Johannesburg
at the airport. But there is no evidence Biden was ever in Johannesburg, the
Washington Examiner reported.
The Biden brothers stayed at hotels paid for by the State Department, which
also afforded Sen. Biden a $75 per diem, for which Kissinger requested
receipts. Kissinger died in November 2023. Biden said at the time of
Kissingers death that, although the two "often disagreed," he will miss
Kissingers "fierce intellect and profound strategic focus."
The trip also became a central issue in Bidens first reelection campaign in
1978.
"When my senator makes at least five trips abroad at taxpayers expense, when
he claims one stop was a plane refueling stop, and I find out he went on a
wildlife photo safari, when he uses his position to take a relative along on
a foreign junket without reimbursing the persons airplane expensesthats an
issue," Bidens opponent, James Baxter Jr., said.
Biden denied that they went on a safari, saying that they merely passed a
wildlife park on the way to an airport.
Frank Biden would go on to hold senior positions for his brothers campaigns
and the Clinton administration. He is now a lobbyist in Florida and has
acknowledged that his brothers political career has helped advance his own,
going so far as to place an advertisement for his firm touting his connection
to the president on Inauguration Day 2021.
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Let's go Brandon!