Former Vice President Joe Biden mimics shooting a gun as he speaks at the Chuck Hagel Forum in Global Leadership, on the campus of the University of Nebraska-Omaha, in Omaha, Neb., Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
A video clip has resurfaced of Joe Biden in action. This isn’t something from a decade ago where he’s commenting on Indians owning 7-11s and Dunkin Donuts shops in Delaware
or asking crippled guys to arise and walk
This is from 2017 and the scene is him at the dedication of the Joseph R. Biden Jr. Aquatic Center in Wilmington, DE.
This is BIZARRE!
Here's Joe Biden telling the story of his face-off with a gang of razor-wielding ne'er-do-wells led by a guy named 'Corn Pop.' pic.twitter.com/DddRtWgdza— Eddie Zipperer (@EddieZipperer) September 15, 2019
You owe it to yourself to watch this but this is the Cliff’s Notes.
In 1962, Biden was a lifeguard at the pool. In his story, he was the only white lifeguard in a pool with all black staff and a mostly black clientele. The villain is a local tough…put the coffee or other drink down NOW…called “Corn Pop” who leads an all black gang called, naturally, “the Romans.” According to Biden, Corn Pop would insult Biden’s mom so while Biden was crying or whatever gang members could sneak into the pool. The matter came to a head over Corn Pop using the 3-meter dive board.
“This was the diving board area, and I was one of the guards, and they weren’t allowed to — it was a 3-meter board. And if you fell off sideways, you landed on the damn, er, darn cement over there,” Biden said.
“And Corn Pop was a bad dude. And he ran a bunch of bad boys. And back in those days — to show how things have changed — one of the things you had to use, if you used Pomade in your hair, you had to wear a bathing cap. And so he was up on the board and wouldn’t listen to me. I said, ‘Hey, Esther, you! Off the board, or I’ll come up and drag you off.’ Well, he came off, and he said, ‘I’ll meet you outside.'”
Biden’s comments were a reference to competitive swimmer-turned actress Esther Williams, who died in 2013.
“My car was mostly, these were all public housing behind us,” Biden continued. “My car – there was a gate on here. I parked my car outside the gate. And he said, ‘I’ll be waiting for you. He was waiting for me with three guys with straight razors. Not a joke. There was a guy named Bill Wright the only white guy and he did all the pools. He was a mechanic. And I said, ‘What am I gonna do?’ And he said. ‘Come down here in the basement, where all the mechanics- – where all the pool builder is.’ You know the chain, there used to be a chain that went across the deep end. And he cut off a six-foot length of chain, and folded it up and he said, ‘You walk out with that chain, and you walk to the car and say, ‘you may cut me man, but I’m gonna wrap this chain around your head.'”
Biden continued: “I said, ‘You’re kidding me.'” He said, ‘No if you don’t, don’t come back.’ And he was right. So I walked out with the chain. And I walked up to my car. And in those days, you remember the straight razors, you had to bang ’em on the curb, gettin’ em rusty, puttin’ em in the rain barrel, gettin’ em rusty? And I looked at him, but I was smart, then. I said, ‘First of all,’ I said, ‘when I tell you to get off the board, you get off the board, and I’ll kick you out again, but I shouldn’t have called you Esther Williams, and I apologize for that. I apologize.’ But I didn’t know that apology was gonna work.”
“He said, ‘you apologize to me?'” Biden went on. “I said, ‘I apologize but not for throwing you out, but I apologize for what I said.’ He said, ‘OK,’ closed that straight razor, and my heart began to beat again.”
I have to admit, given Biden’s reputation for making things up, I was, even as an unambiguously white guy, pretty much in the same place as The Root writer, Michael Harriott
Now it has already been demonstrably proven that Biden will make stuff up. But any black person who hears this story will automatically give you the side-eye and says: "nigga please."
It begins when Biden was working as a lifeguard at a pool.
— michaelharriot (@michaelharriot) September 14, 2019
So, that summer, Biden was the only white lifeguard at Prices Run swimming pool in Brown-Burton Winchester Park. He says he did it—y'all, I SWEAR this is true—"in hopes of learning more about the black community."
Yes, that's an actual quote.
— michaelharriot (@michaelharriot) September 14, 2019
Anyway, during Biden's Negro Summer Safari Adventure, one day, all of the town gangsters came to the pool.
Now I know what you're thinking, but don't stereotype. Gangbangers are NOT a monolith.
— michaelharriot (@michaelharriot) September 14, 2019
Now if you're black, I know this shit sounds like some white kid tried to make a gang fairy tale for a sixth-grade play because you and I know there ain't no squad led by a nigga named Corn Pop going around terrorizing Delaware pools.
— michaelharriot (@michaelharriot) September 14, 2019
Biden told him:
"Esther Williams! Get off the board, man…"
Then Biden kicked Corn Pop out of the pool.
(I know you're thinking "Who TF is Esther Williams?" She was a famous swimmer in the 50s. But I admit, I thought he was talking about the lady who played Florida Evans, too)— michaelharriot (@michaelharriot) September 14, 2019
They told Biden that Corn Pop carried a straight razor and was gonna be waiting for him when he got off work. Now you and I both know that, if this was true, Biden would've just called the cops to walk him to the car.
— michaelharriot (@michaelharriot) September 14, 2019
Anyway, Biden says, instead he wrapped a six-foot metal chain around his arm and wrapped that in a towel. Because everyone knows there are ample black chains just laying around the "African America community" but no police officers.
— michaelharriot (@michaelharriot) September 14, 2019
And guess what happened?
Just like that, my nigga CP put down the straight razor and he and Biden became friends. From that day own, Biden was untouchable in the black community because Corn Pop vouched for him
Again, STOP LAUGHING!
— michaelharriot (@michaelharriot) September 14, 2019
But this story is actually recounted in Joe Biden's 2007 autobiography AND is retold in the Washington Post, here: https://t.co/oN2TCKwKsw
— michaelharriot (@michaelharriot) September 14, 2019
But this is not about Biden.
This is a celebration of the life of a straight razor-carrying certified street thug who I'd bet my pinky toe never existed. But if you ask Biden, I bet he'd say Corn Pop has passed on.
RIP my nigga Corn Pop.
This is how it sounds when thugs die— michaelharriot (@michaelharriot) September 14, 2019
But, there appears to be some truth in the story. This guy, who, by the way has never encountered a liberal Democrat he will not fluff, comes up with evidence that there was actually a gang based in Northeast Wilmington public housing called “The Romans” and that there was a least one guy in Wilmington at the time who was at some point in his life called “Cornpop.” And some notable locals claim to know all about this event:
Biden is facing skepticism for a story he has told about a 1960s confrontation at a Wilmington, Delaware pool with a guy named Corn Pop — partly because of the name Corn Pop.
Here's an obituary for Wilmington's William L. "CornPop" Morris, who died at 73 in 2016. (Thread) pic.twitter.com/HGuLyorEvW
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 15, 2019
Some of the skepticism has been about the name of the gang or crew Biden said CornPop ran with, the Romans. Here's an article from Delaware's News Journal in which a local historian says there was a Wilmington gang called the Romans in the 1960s. pic.twitter.com/A4ePc4hnDX
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 15, 2019
And here’s Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher adding to the story, for what that might be worth (not much, is my guess):
Here's @RepLBR on Joe Biden and what the #CornPop story meant to her. https://t.co/SUfjb2xaFC pic.twitter.com/wwZU3nZxMS
— Tommy X-TrumpIsARacist-opher (@tommyxtopher) September 15, 2019
Here’s the thing. Just because various parts of this story are true doesn’t mean the story is true. The odds of significant political figures in Delaware blowing the whistle of Joe Biden approach zero. So we can really discount the third party claims to the story as unreliable. The fact that a gang named The Romans existed doesn’t mean they went to the pool where Joe Biden worked. There is nothing in the obit of William “Cornpop” Morris to indicate that a) he was affiliated with a street gang or b) that he was even a Wilmington native. He is of the same age as Biden and there is the nickname but none of that adds up to Biden’s story. And the fact that the usual rescue squad for Democrat politicians on fire is in operation doesn’t give one a great feeling of comfort:
The story may be true or it may not. Outside of Jiffy Pop or Lollipop showing up to give corroborating testimony, we’ll most likely never have conclusive proof that the story is real and not another Bidenesque adventure that has entertained us over the years. What we can say is that a) Biden has been telling it for a while and b) there are verifiable factoids in the story that indicate something like the story happened but my gut feeling is that the actual story is something very dissimilar to Biden’s rendition of the tale, just like the story of him awarding the Navy Cross to the tearful and reluctant Navy captain.
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