Biden explains South Africa arrest story

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Sunday explained the discrepancies in a now-contentious story he's told about being arrested while attempting to meet Nelson Mandela.

Biden has come under fire after claiming — then retracting — that he was arrested while traveling to South Africa in the 1970s while trying to see the then-imprisoned anti-apartheid leader. He claimed he was arrested along with then-U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young, but Young said he was never arrested while in the country.

Biden recanted the story Friday and explained on “Fox News Sunday” that though he was not arrested, he was held up at the airport for refusing to use a whites-only entrance shortly after arriving in the country.

"The Afrikaners took me off the plane and took me in one direction, wanted me to go through a white-only door, and in fact I wouldn't move," Biden said. "I said everybody else is going through another door, I'm going with the black delegation that I came with."

He continued: "They would not let me move anywhere. I guess I should've said I was detained; I was not able to move forward."

South Africa in the apartheid era was marred by police brutality and arbitrary detentions. Biden said that was not what happened to him but that the anecdote was still a testament to his fierce opposition to apartheid at the time.