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Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy. We need your help. More Info ### I would like to contribute One Time Monthly Yearly Join Now ![](\\" ![](\\" Viral image stated on July 16, 2020 in a Facebook post: Says Joe Biden said, “We don’t need any more N***** bigshots.” ![\\"true\\"](\\" false/33efdb6633e5e2fdc2d4e2f63383a1e0.jpg.\\") ![\\"false\\"](\\" false.jpg\\") * Candidate Biography * Race and Ethnicity * Facebook Fact-checks * Viral image ![\\"Ciara](\\" By Ciara O\'Rourke July 22, 2020 # Biden was quoting a memo during a Senate hearing #### If Your Time is short * Joe Biden was referring to a redistricting case and quoting a memo during the Senate confirmation hearings for William Bradford Reynolds for associate attorney general. See the sources for this fact-check \"Black lives do matter, but one person disagrees,\" begins a video attacking Joe Biden that was recently posted on Facebook by an account called Committee to Defend the President. \"He’s praised KKK members,\" the narrator says as the words \"Praised KKK member Robert Byrd\" flash on the screen. \"Wrote a bill that jailed Black Americans,\" the narrator continues, \"repeated the N-word twice on camera and said busing would turn schools into a racial jungle.\" Two quotes attributed to Biden appear: \"We don’t need any more N***** bigshots\" and \"My children are going to grow up in a jungle, the jungle being a racial jungle.\" This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) We’ve previously fact-checked some of the claims in this video. Biden was friends with former U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat who was once a member of the Ku Klux Klan. But Byrd renounced his views, and his public expressions of regret and shame over his involvement with the racist organization were well-documented by the time Biden — and former President Barack Obama — praised him at his memorial service in 2010. Biden also opposed court-ordered busing to integrate public schools, saying in 1977 that \"unless we do something about this, my children are going to grow up in a jungle, the jungle being a racial jungle with tensions built so high that it is going to explode at some point.\" But in this fact-check, we’re addressing the other quote attributed to Biden, in which he uses the N-word. #### Featured Fact-check ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on August 30, 2024 in a post \"Samsung drops out of $1 billion advertising campaign with Olympics.\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" false/33efdb6633e5e2fdc2d4e2f63383a1e0.jpg.\\") ![\\"false\\"](\\" false.jpg\\") By Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu • August 2, 2024 The video cites a C-SPAN video from June 5, 1985. We found a clip that a user created on Feb. 11, 2020 and titled: \"In 1985, Joe Biden twice says the N-word.\" In the clip, Biden is referring to a court ruling when he says: \"The court concluded, quote: ‘The governor’s opposition to the Nunez plan was predicated in significant part on his delineation of a majority Black district centered in Orleans Parish.’ And in confidential portions of your staff memo, they brought to your attention the allegation that an important legislator, in defeating the Nunez plan in the basement, said, quote: ‘We already have a (n-----) mayor; we don’t need another (n------) big-shot.’\" Here’s what you need to know. Biden was speaking from his perch on the Senate Judiciary Committee during one of the confirmation hearings for William Bradford Reynolds, who then-President Ronald Regan nominated to be associate attorney general of the United States. The court ruling Biden was reading from struck down a Louisiana redistricting plan because it was biased against the state’s Black residents. Reynolds, who headed the Justice Department’s civil rights section, had told the state of Louisiana the federal government wouldn’t object to the plan. Biden focused on the case during his hearing in part because the former head of the civil rights section during the Nixon administration described the plan as \"a blatant racial gerrymander,\" the Washington Post reported at the time. The Senate committee ultimately rejected the nomination. Biden was wielding the quote with the racist slur as evidence against Reynolds’ fitness for the position. \"There was clear, clear evidence of intent to discriminate against Black folks,\" Biden went on to say during the hearing, addressing Reynolds. \"I have been here 13 years, and you are one of the best lawyers we have ever had sit in front of us that worked for the federal government. And you are clearly not a racist. You are not out there saying, ‘Man, I want to get those Blacks.’ And then I sit back and I ask: If that is the case, how could he look at all this and not come to the conclusion that something was rotten in Denmark?\" Our ruling It’s true that Biden twice used the word on camera, as the video says. But context matters, and the video doesn’t make clear that Biden was quoting from a passage in a court ruling when he said it. Someone watching this could understandably — and wrongly — believe that these were Biden’s own words. They weren’t. We rate this claim False. #### Read About Our Process The Principles of the Truth-O-Meter ### Our Sources Facebook post, July 16, 2020 PolitiFact, Robert Byrd wasn’t a Grand Wizard of the KKK but he once led a local chapter, Aug. 15, 2019 The White House, Remarks by the president and vice president at a memorial service for Senator Robert C. Byrd, July 2, 2010 PolitiFact, Biden said that without ‘orderly integration’ his children would grow up in a ‘racial jungle,’ June 29, 2020 The New York Times, Joe Biden on crime and mass incarceration, June 27, 2019 C-SPAN, User clip: In 1985, Joe Biden twice says the N-word, created Feb. 11, 2020 U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, William Bradford Reynolds confirmation hearings, June 4, 5, 18, 1985 The Washington Post, Reynolds’ foes claim moral high ground, June 24, 1985 The New York Times, Senate committee rejects Reynolds for justice post, June 28, 1985 ## Browse the Truth-O-Meter ### More by Ciara O\'Rourke ![](\\" ![](\\" Viral image stated on September 8, 2024 in a Threads post: “Elon Musk is going to expose Bill Gates soon, says ‘he’s evil.’” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ciara O\'Rourke • September 12, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on September 6, 2024 in a Facebook post: “Gordon Ramsay calls Tim Walz a ‘woke creep,’ throws him out of Hell’s Kitchen.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ciara O\'Rourke • September 12, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Viral image stated on September 7, 2024 in a Threads post: Photo shows Elton John wearing a “MAGA” jacket. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ciara O\'Rourke • September 12, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Viral image stated on August 30, 2024 in a Facebook post: Video shows tornadoes in Canada. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ciara O\'Rourke • September 12, 2024 ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on September 8, 2024 in an Instagram post: Video shows a Ku Klux Klan member at a rally for former President Donald Trump. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ciara O\'Rourke • September 12, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Viral image stated on September 7, 2024 in a Threads post: Elon Musk said, “Anyone caught promoting propaganda will be suspended from X.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ciara O\'Rourke • September 12, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Viral image stated on September 6, 2024 in a Facebook post: “Elon Musk to fund new anti-woke show featuring Tucker Carlson.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ciara O\'Rourke • September 12, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Viral image stated on September 2, 2024 in an Instagram post: Image shows “Michelle Obama’s necklace from DNC speech” said “Mike.” ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Ciara O\'Rourke • September 11, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Viral image stated on September 4, 2024 in an Instagram post: “The entire family of Kamala Harris’ running mate, Tim Walz—they are all supporting Donald Trump.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ciara O\'Rourke • September 6, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Viral image stated on September 4, 2024 in an Instagram post: An image shows the social media profile of the accused suspect in the Apalachee High School shooting. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ciara O\'Rourke • September 5, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Viral image stated on September 2, 2024 in an Instagram post: “In less than 48 hours the United States government is shutting down for good.” ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Ciara O\'Rourke • September 5, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on September 2, 2024 in a Facebook post: Photo shows a child “saved” by Deputy Ryan Braidley in Elko County, Nevada. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ciara O\'Rourke • September 5, 2024 ![](\\" logo-black-01/b6cedac93f6e57c68ecc025e5ec29d57.jpg\\") ![](\\" logo-black-01/438dbf066033f99de07598cbcc77ddcb.jpg\\") Threads posts stated on September 2, 2024 in a Threads post: Photo shows Vice President Kamala Harris “in the 90s.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ciara O\'Rourke • September 4, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Viral image stated on August 27, 2024 in a Facebook post: “Kurt Russell forms a new non-woke actors alliance with Roseanne Barr and Tim Allen.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ciara O\'Rourke • August 30, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Viral image stated on August 23, 2024 in an X post: Photo of former President Donald Trump after an assassination attempt was generated by artificial intelligence. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Ciara O\'Rourke • August 30, 2024 ### Biden was quoting a memo during a Senate hearing * ![](\\" ![](\\" Instagram posts stated on September 12, 2024 in an Instagram post: A video shows a body that Israel embedded with a bomb exploding during a Palestinian funeral procession. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Sofia Ahmed • September 13, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on September 11, 2024 in a post: “ESPN has fired Shannon Sharpe.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Gideon Hess • September 13, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Threads posts stated on September 12, 2024 in a post on Threads: An image shows Travis 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Not for her health. Not even for rape.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Samantha Putterman • September 13, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on September 11, 2024 in una publicación en Facebook: Imagen muestra carnet del Partido Comunista de la vicepresidenta Kamala Harris. ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Maria Briceño • September 13, 2024 Load more ### Support independent fact-checking. Become a member! In a world of wild talk and fake news, help us stand up for the facts. 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Says Joe Biden said We don’t need any more N bigshots