Joe Biden attempted to rationalize his false claim that he was “arrested” while trying to trying to visit Nelson Mandela in South Africa.

The candidate made the claim three times on the trail, and was confronted about it today on CNN.

“What I meant to say was, I got off that— look, I strongly, strongly, strongly opposed Apartheid,” he said before promoting his campaign website.

“I was with a black delegation, the CDC, the Congressional Black Caucus,” he continued, before going on a stem winder about being led off a plane “first,” as “the entire black delegation” was led another way.

“I said, ‘I’m not going to go in that door that says white only, I’m going with them.’ They said, ‘You’re not. You can’t move. You can’t go with them.'”

Biden said after Mandela was freed years later, he came and thanked Biden for his efforts.

Then he admitted, “I guess I wasn’t arrested, I was stopped. I was not able to move where I wanted to go.”

“When I said arrested, I meant I was not able to move,” he said.