(CNN) Former Vice President Joe Biden on Friday acknowledged that he wasn't arrested in South Africa during a visit to the country in the 1970s despite recently claiming that he had been.

"When I said arrested, I meant I was not able, I was not able to move ... I wasn't arrested, I was stopped. I was not able to move where I wanted to go," Biden told CNN's John Berman on "New Day."

Biden had recently claimed multiple times on the campaign trail that he was arrested on the trip to South Africa during apartheid. He's used the story as part of his larger efforts to connect with African American voters ahead of the South Carolina primary, where a big showing is critical if he is to remain viable in the race.

"This day 30 years ago, Nelson Mandela walked out of prison and entered into discussions about apartheid. I had the great honor of meeting him. I had the great honor of being arrested with our UN ambassador on the streets of Soweto trying to get to see him on (Robben) Island," Biden said at his South Carolina launch party in Columbia earlier this month.

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