Did Joe Biden Say ‘I’m Gonna Take on Those Rapist Mexicans’ During a Rally?

On October 30 2020, TikTok user @camarocuddy shared what appeared to be footage of former U.S. Vice President and Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden saying, “I’m gonna take on those rapist Mexicans”:

@camarocuddyJoe Biden is definitely not winning the election now! ???????? ##fyp ##foryoupage ##wewintogether ##trumpoverbiden ##trumptrain2020 ##maga2020 ##sleepyjoe♬ original sound – Cuddy Camaro

Additional text said:

Joe Biden is definitely not winning the election now! ???????? #fyp #foryoupage #wewintogether #trumpoverbiden #trumptrain2020 #maga2020 #sleepyjoe

On October 30 2020, a YouTube user by the name of Luke Trotta shared an 18-second portion of the clip to YouTube, using the TikTok user’s material. That clip was titled “Joe Biden is saying I’m gonna take on these rapist Mexicans.”

A day later, on October 31 2020, TikTok user @anarchocringeism addressed @camarocuddy’s clip in their own video alongside the following status update:

#stitch with camarocuddy embarrassing lol,,, #leftist #democrat #biden2020 #trump2020

In the clip, @anarchocringeism played the first portion of the earlier TikTok post, which showed Biden making the remarks:

@anarchocringeism##stitch with @camarocuddy embarrassing lol,,, ##leftist ##democrat ##biden2020 ##trump2020♬ original sound – Luca

Then they said:

Cool, but let’s look at what you cut off from the beginning.

@anarchocringeism then displayed a YouTube clip, also uploaded on October 30 2020, titled “Biden claims Trump called Mexicans rapists.” Unlike the edited clip shared by @camarocuddy, the footage clearly showed that Biden was quoting Trump:

… remember what he [President Trump] said … he said “I’m gonna take down those rapist Mexicans …”

After playing that portion, @anarchocringeism said of Biden in the @camarocuddy clip:

He was literally quoting Trump.

Biden appeared to be referencing widely reported remarks made by then-candidate Donald Trump in 2015:

The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems. Thank you. It’s true, and these are the best and the finest. When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.

Biden also mentioned Trump Tower. In 2018, CNN quoted Trump linking immigration to rape — invoking an old, discredited, and thoroughly debunked trope in the process:

Trump was speaking in West Virginia [in April 2018], talking about how he prefers a merit-based immigration system like Canada’s to a lottery-based system like the one in the US.

“With us, it’s a lottery system — pick them out — a lottery system. You can imagine what those countries put into the system. They’re not putting their good ones.

“And remember my opening remarks at Trump Tower, when I opened. Everybody said, ‘Oh, he was so tough,’ and I used the word ‘rape.’ And yesterday, it came out where, this journey coming up, women are raped at levels that nobody has ever seen before. They don’t want to mention that.

“So we have to change our laws. And the Democrats, what they’re doing is just — it’s insanity. I don’t — nobody understands what’s going on.”

A clip purporting to show Joe Biden saying that he was “gonna take on those rapist Mexicans” appeared on TikTok and YouTube in the days before the November 3 2020 U.S presidential election. Separate clips on both platforms showed that Biden was in fact paraphrasing repeated remarks from U.S. President Donald Trump.