Video shows Biden quoting gospel song, not plagiarizing Hillary Clinton

"BIDEN v. HILLARY: 15 years apart," says RNC Research in a January 9, 2024 post on X, formerly Twitter.

The post features clips of Clinton and Biden reciting slightly different variations of the words: "I've come too far from where I started from. Nobody told me that the road would be easy. I don't believe he brought me this far to leave me."

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Screenshot from X taken January 10, 2024

The compilation rocketed across X -- amplified by conservatives such as Trump senior adviser Jason Miller, who accused Biden of "plagiarizing" the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee. Similar claims also spread on other platforms, including Instagram and TikTok.

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Biden is no stranger to plagiarism allegations, having withdrawn his first presidential bid in 1987 after he was caught lifting words from a British politician's speech without attribution. Trump, who is running to retake the White House in 2024 while facing several criminal investigations, made similar claims ahead of the 2020 election.

But the recent clip of the Democratic president does not show him stealing lines from an old Hillary Clinton speech -- in fact, they were both quoting "I Don't Feel Noways Tired," a famous hymn popularized by American gospel artist James Cleveland.

"Folks, my fellow Americans, this is a time of choosing, so let us choose the truth. Let us choose America," Biden said during a January 8, 2024 event at a church in the state of South Carolina, the site of a racist massacre in 2015.

Footage and the official White House transcript of his remarks (archived here and here) show Biden went on to say: "And as the gospel song sings, 'We’ve come too far from where we started. Nobody told me the road would be easy. I don’t believe he brought me this far to leave me.'"

Years earlier, while speaking on the March 4, 2007 anniversary of the civil rights march known as "Bloody Sunday," then-Senator Clinton invoked the same song (archived here and here).

"On this floor today, let us say with one voice the words of James Cleveland's great freedom hymn, 'I don't feel noways tired. I come too far from where I started from. Nobody told me that the road would be easy. I don't believe he brought me this far to leave me,'" she said in Selma, Alabama.

The RNC Research montage selectively edits the clips to omit Biden and Clinton's introductions of the hymn. The speeches were also almost 17 years apart, not 15.

"We follow the law and don't comment on the 2024 election," White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates told AFP in a January 10, 2024 email. "But if someone is taking issue with President Biden quoting a famous gospel song in speeches because of how meaningful and powerful it is, I don't know what to tell them."

Hymn often cited

Biden has alluded to the gospel song many times as president, including during January 2023 remarks honoring Martin Luther King Jr, at a Black History Month reception in February 2023, and at a June 2023 concert celebrating Juneteenth (archived here, here and here). 

He also recited the lyrics on the campaign trail in November 2020 (archived here). Each time, Biden made clear he was quoting the hymn.

Other politicians have also referenced the song. Democratic Senator Tim Kaine invoked it ahead of the 2010 midterm elections, saying he used to sing it in church choir (archived here). 

Democratic Congresswoman Barbara Lee also quoted it during the 2014 reopening of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee (archived here). In 2017, Loretta Lynch alluded to it in her final speech as attorney general (archived here). 

Civil rights activist Al Sharpton also referenced the lyrics during a memorial service for George Floyd, a Black man killed by a white Minnesota police officer in 2020 (archived here).

AFP has previously fact-checked other out-of-context clips of Biden, including posts from RNC Research.