Biden private Harvard event dogged by ice cream fail, protesters, gaffes

Former President Joseph R. Biden’s under-the-radar visit to Harvard University might not have gone as well as expected, thanks to protesters, gaffes, and an ice cream situation.

The newly retired Democrat was greeted by a dozen anti-Israel activists after word leaked of his off-the-record seminar Wednesday with a select group of faculty and students hosted by the Harvard Kennedy School Institute for Politics.

“Biden, Biden, you can’t hide! You’re committing genocide,” chanted protesters who also banged drums and rang bells, according to the Harvard Crimson.

Mr. Biden made his appearance at the invitation of former White House senior advisor Michael Donilon, a longtime Biden hand now serving as a resident fellow at the institute.

The ex-president offered support for the university in its showdown over campus antisemitism and ideological extremism with the Trump administration, which recently suspended $2.2 billion in federal funding and has threatened to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status.

“Harvard stepped up in a way no one else has,” Mr. Biden said, according to the Crimson, citing two students who attended the private gathering. “You should be really thankful.”

The 82-year-old Mr. Biden largely disappeared from public view after leaving office Jan. 20. He made his first public remarks on Tuesday, blasting President Trump on Social Security in a speech at the Advocates, Counselors and Representatives for the Disabled conference in Chicago.

At Harvard, Mr. Biden showed that his penchant for verbal stumbles and miscues hasn’t deserted him.

“His appearance was marked by gaffes of the sort that became political lightning rods during the 2024 presidential race, including mistakenly referring to Ukraine as Iraq while discussing Russia’s invasion before Donilon corrected him,” the student newspaper reported.

“And when Biden bit into an ice cream bar after the talk, the partially melted dessert fell to the floor,” according to the report published Thursday.

Mr. Biden did not meet with Harvard President Alan Garber during his visit, the newspaper reported.