Biden says he was a professor, but didn’t teach a single class for nearly $1M gig

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Biden says he was a professor, but didn’t teach a single class for nearly $1M gig

Biden gave around a dozen lectures at the University of Pennsylvania between 2017 and 2019

President Biden told an audience in New Mexico Thursday that he was a professor after leaving the vice presidency, despite never properly assuming that role. 

Biden slipped in the comment while touting the amount of time he has spent with Chinese President Xi Jinping. 

President Joe Biden speaks about his student debt relief plan at Central New Mexico Community College, Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022, in Albuquerque, N.M.  (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

"I spent more time with Xi Jinping of China than any world leader has. When I was vice president and when I was out of the office for four years and I was a professor, and now president," Biden said.   

The president was speaking at the Central New Mexico Community College in Albuquerque about his student debt relief plan and as part of a four-state, three-day campaign swing to support Democrats in competitive races in solidly blue California, Illinois and New Mexico as well as battleground Pennsylvania. 

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Thursday was not the first time he brandished his supposed credentials as a former professor at the University of Pennsylvania. 

After leaving the White House, Biden was given the title Benjamin Franklin Presidential Practice Professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

Biden's claim to have been a professor has been looked into previously, with Snopes determining in April 2022 that "this role was honorary." While Biden held the honorary post, he made about $900,000. He gave roughly a dozen lectures and talks but never taught a full semester’s course. Nor did he conduct any research or have any administrative responsibilities. 

At the same time, Biden held the honorary Franklin post, Penn also named him Senior Fellow at the Andrea Mitchell Center for the Study of Democracy.

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After launching his presidential campaign in April 2019, the university released a statement saying he would be taking an "unpaid leave of absence from his work at the Penn Biden Center." 

Fox News Digital has reached out to the university for comment. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.