Biden, 81, repeats debunked claim he was 'the first in his family to go to college': Joe brings back boast in Wisconsin student loans speech... despite bragging that is grandfather was an 'All-American football player'

President Joe Biden repeated a previously debunked claim that he was the first in his family to go to college during a student loans speech in Wisconsin Monday, after being called out in the past for the claim. 

'I, like an awful lot of people in this audience, was the first in my family to go to college and watched my dad struggle to help me get there,' Biden said in Madison as he touted his new executive actions to slash student loans for millions of Americans.

He has made the claim before, including during his 2020 campaign. The Donald Trump campaign flagged it at the time as inaccurate, as it had been during a much more serious incident when he borrowed language from British Labour Party Leader Neil Kinnock in a 1987 which helped end his presidential campaign.

In that speech, he said he was the 'first in his family ever to go to university,'  in language that closely tracked Kinnock's as part of a longer passage. Biden subsequently told the New York Times, 'there are Finnegans, my mother's family, that went to college,' acknowledging the error.

President Joe Biden called himself the 'first in my family to go to college'

'The President is proud to be the first Biden to graduate college,' said White House spokesman Andrew Bates. 

Biden, 81, during his Monday speech once again spoke about his grandfather being an 'All-American football player,' a line that itself points to his ancestor's time in college, although the 'All-Ameican' title hasn't been established.

But there are problems with tale as well. An AP fact check found that Biden's grandfather Ambrose Finnegan attended Santa Clara College. That would have occurred around 1902. An obit called him a 'star athlete' who quarterbacked the team, but didn't establish he was a college All-American. (It did maintain that he 'may have been an All-American player by another token.')

The comments got picked up by Republicans, who accused him of 'lying.' The remarks came in a speech where Biden promised 'life changing relief' for 30 million borrowers, as Biden reaches out to young voters in a battleground state he carried in 2020 and needs to fend off Trump in a rematch.

More than 48,000 Democrats voted for 'uninstructed' in last week's primary, more than twice his 2020 victory margin.

Biden made the comment about his background in a speech to students in Madison, Wisconsin

Biden grandfather Ambrose Finnegan was a librarian who worked in the newspaper business after being a 'star athlete' at Santa Clara College in California

He said he would 'give everybody a fair shot' and the 'freedom to chase their dreams,' on a day he announced plans to wipe away debt, including for millions whose student loans whose principle had grown larger than when they first took out the loans years ago.

'Even when they work hard and pay their student loans, their debt increases and not diminishes,' Said Biden. 'Too many people feel the strain and stress, wondering if they can get married, have their first child, start a family, because even if they get by, they still have this crushing, crushing debt.'