MEXICO CITY: US President Joe Biden was employed by the University of Pennsylvania after leaving the vice presidency and was paid one million dollars a year as a professor but never taught a class.
On Tuesday, at North America Leaders’ Summit in Mexico City, Biden said, “The four years after being vice president, I was a professor at Penn.”
Notably, for two years the University of Pennsylvania paid Biden nearly USD 1 million, but he never taught a class.
This revelation has been made by the Republican National Committee Research unit or RNC research which has also reported that “Biden continues to lie about being a professor”.
Biden was an honorary professor at the Philadelphia school from 2017-2019.
According to an investigative report from the Philadelphia Inquirer, he was paid USD 371,159 in 2017 and USD 540,484 in 2018 and 2019.
In 2017, Biden accepted an honorary professor position, formally referred to as “Benjamin Franklin Presidential Practice Professor”.
He also established the Penn Biden Centre for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, in addition to the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware, his alma mater.However, this role was honorary. He gave lectures and talks to students on campus but did not teach a full semester’s course load during that time.
Biden once held an honorary professor position at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), from 2017-2021, after being vice president in Barack Obama’s administration.
However, he did not teach a semester’s worth of courses; he primarily gave talks and lectures to students, and he led the Penn Biden Centre for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington.
In April 2019, as Biden became the candidate for the US presidency, the university released the a statement saying, “Biden officially announced that he will be running for President of the United States. A number of people on campus have asked in recent days how this would impact his role at the Penn Biden Centre for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. Now that he is officially a candidate, Vice President Biden, who serves as the Benjamin Franklin Presidential Practice Professor, will be taking an unpaid leave of absence from his work at the Penn Biden Centre.”
According to the tax forms he has released, Biden received more than USD 900,000 from the university for holding the position between 2017 and 2019. Meanwhile, responding to documents marked classified were found at the Penn Biden Centre for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, Biden said he was ‘surprised’ to learn there were any government documents at the office, which was opened after he served as vice president, reported CBS News.
“People know I take classified documents, classified information seriously,” Biden said during a press conference at the North American Leaders’ Summit in Mexico City, adding, “When my lawyers were clearing out my office at the University of Pennsylvania, they set up an office for me — when I — the four years after being vice president, I was a professor at Penn. They found some documents in a box, in a locked cabinet, at least a closet. And as soon as they did, they realized there were several classified documents in that box.”
“And they did what they should have done,” the president said, adding, “They immediately called the Archives–immediately called the Archives, turned them over to the Archives, and I was briefed about this discovery and surprised to learn that there were any government records that were taken there to that office.”
Biden said he’s unaware of the contents of the documents, reported CBS News.
“But I don’t know what’s in the documents, I’ve–my lawyers have not suggested I ask what documents they were. I’ve turned over the boxes, they’ve turned over the boxes to the Archives, and we’re cooperating fully, we’re cooperating fully with the review, which I hope will be finished soon. And there will be more detail at that time,” the US President said.
Earlier, Attorney General Merrick Garland assigned the US attorney in Chicago to review the documents.
The roughly 10 documents are from President Biden’s vice-presidential office at the centre, the sources said, and CBS News has learned the FBI is also involved in the US attorney’s inquiry. CBS News has learned those documents were marked with varying levels of classification including some that were designated highly classified. (ANI)