In a lengthy anecdote, President Biden on Monday claimed there was a rumor that his great-grandfather was part of a group of miners who murdered an anti-Catholic mine foreman and then laid out his body on the “doorstep” of the family's home.
Speaking to union members in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the 81-year-old president recounted the bizarre anecdote, to which Vice President Kamala Harris nodded, joking that she was “disappointed” to learn that her great-grandfather, Edward Francis Blueitt, was not one of the Molly Maguires.
“I remember my great-grandfather was the second Catholic ever elected to the Senate here in Pennsylvania,” Biden began, “and I remember when he ran against me in 1906, they said, 'Guess what? He's a Molly Maguire.'
The president explained that “in the old days,” Irish Catholics who worked in Pennsylvania's coal mines were often mistreated by foremen, and that a group of recently arrived Irishmen known as the Molly Maguires retaliated violently against their oppressors.
“The mines were owned by a lot of British people,” Biden said. “They brutally beat up the miners, who were mostly Catholics. I'm not kidding.”
“But there was a group called the Molly Maguires,” he continued, “and if the Molly Maguires found out that a director was taking advantage of an individual, they would literally kill that person — I'm not kidding — and then they would take that person's body and put it on the family's doorstep.”
“It's a bit vulgar but I have to admit they accused my great grandfather of being a Molly Maguire. He wasn't but we were really disappointed.”
AFL-CIO President Liz Schuller threw her head back at Biden's sarcastic remark, and Harris, who was also on stage with the president, laughed.
“That's a joke. That's a joke,” Biden assured the crowd.
2020 story Irish American Magazine This appears to support Biden's claim that his great-grandfather was allegedly a member of this secret organization.
The magazine also noted that Biden told a similar anecdote about Brewitt, although with a different punchline, during a 2008 campaign rally with former President Barack Obama.
“He worked hard to prove that he wasn't. [a Molly Maguire]”And we were all praying that he would be,” Biden told a crowd of coal miners in Virginia.
