Home False: Biden: If he (Biden) wins, he will be the first person without an Ivy League degree to be elected president.

False: Biden: If he (Biden) wins, he will be the first person without an Ivy League degree to be elected president.

By: Devika Kandelwal

September 30 2020

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False: Biden: If he (Biden) wins, he will be the first person without an Ivy League degree to be elected president.

Fact-Check

The Verdict False

Biden would be the first president since Ronald Reagan to be elected president without an Ivy League education.

Biden would be the first president since Ronald Reagan to be elected president without an Ivy League education.Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, said during the CNN town hall that "When you guys (media) started talking on television about 'Biden if he wins will be the first person without an Ivy League degree to be elected president.' I said, 'Who the hell makes you think I need an Ivy League degree to be president?' I'm not joking." With this statement, Biden implied that, if he wins, he would be the first president without an Ivy League degree. However, that is not true. Biden would be the first president since Ronald Reagan to be elected president without an Ivy League education. Even before Reagan, many former presidents of the United States did not have an Ivy League education or did not graduate at all. Out of the first 24 men who became president, 11 had not graduated from college at all (though three of them had attended college without earning a degree). The last president to win the White House without having a college degree was Harry Truman, according to Pew Research Center. Furthermore, Biden and his running mate, Democratic Senator Kamala Harris, is the first Democratic ticket since 1984 to not have an Ivy League degree. The last ticket to win the presidency without an Ivy League graduate was Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale in 1976.

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