The majority of Joe Biden’s career was spent serving as a senator from Delaware. He is a seasoned politician. In 1972, Biden won his first Senate race, becoming the fifth-youngest senator in American history.
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history,” claims History.
Throughout the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, Biden consistently won. During his 36 years in the Senate, Biden participated in historic decisions like handling the fallout from President Bill Clinton’s impeachment after a scandal that shocked the White House.
CNN claims that in 1999, the Senate exonerated President Clinton after Biden cast “not guilty” votes on both articles of impeachment. The Los Angeles Times claims that Biden voted in favor of the Iraq War in 2002, a choice that Barack Obama later came to regret.
Outside of politics, Biden appeared to lead a very normal personal life. He temporarily lost his “appetite” for politics after the tragic death of his son Beau in 2015, according to the UVA Miller Center, and instead “created the Biden Foundation and the Biden Cancer Initiative” with his wife up until his presidential campaign.
However, Biden’s life hasn’t been without controversy and tragedy as he prepares to run for president in 2020.
J. Robinette Biden Jr. was born on November 20, 1942, during the Second World War. As the oldest of four children, Biden was raised in Scranton, Pennsylvania. According to History, Biden’s family relocated to the Wilmington, Delaware region when he was 10 years old “where his father found work as a car salesman.”.
According to US News, Biden’s father was a working-class man who “cleaned furnaces and sold used cars. Before enrolling in Archmere Academy, an “elite preparatory high school, Biden attended Catholic schools in Delaware. But while he was in school, Biden struggled with both his grades and his stutter. According to reports, the young man’s classmates called him “Dash” and “Joe Impedimenta.”.
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The president admitted that his stuttering setback helped him advance in a promotional video titled “11 Things You May Not Know About Joe Biden.”. According to reports, he “would recite Yeats and Emerson to work on his public speaking.” He was referring to two well-known poets.
In a CNN town hall speech, Biden also mentioned how his mother’s encouragement had guided him. Joey, please don’t let this define you, she pleaded with him. Joey, never forget who you are. Joey, you can do this. The future president acknowledged that he still stutters occasionally while discussing how he remained an advocate for people who stammer. The only disability that people still make fun of is stuttering, if you think about it. That still makes people feel inferior, said Biden.
Joe Biden pursued his undergraduate studies at the University of Delaware. At the time, Biden was described as “a good-looking guy with a gift of gab” by Fred Sears, one of his high school friends. During his first year of college, Biden was allegedly “an aspirant football running back,” and “Biden was elected president of his class. One of the other football players remembered Biden as a nice young man. Biden reportedly did not consume alcohol or tobacco, and he frequently traveled in a convertible.
During his time in college, Biden guarded swimmers in Wilmington, Delaware. The only white lifeguard at a public pool in an area with a high African-American population was Biden, according to reports. Additionally, Biden “was always right there,” according to Maurice Pritchett, a Wilmington educator at the time who spoke to The New York Times. And we gave him a warm welcome. A Black student from Biden’s high school was reportedly refused service in a Wilmington restaurant, and Biden left.
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At the conclusion of his undergraduate studies, Biden, according to the University of Delaware, earned a double major in political science and history.
Joe Biden was referred to as “the teetotaling semi-jock with a sweater around his neck” and “the type who seemed more consumed with date nights than civil rights,” according to The New York Times, when he attended the University of Delaware. ”.
And once, while out on a date, Biden allegedly threatened to “end the evening with a woman who lit a cigarette in his borrowed convertible.”. But Biden found his true love away from school. For their spring break in 1964, he and his friends traveled to Florida.
The boys then made the choice to travel to Nassau, Bahamas. In order to enter a hotel pool covertly while on the island, Biden “wrapped a guest towel around his waist and strode confidently past the guards. The young woman from Syracuse who caught Biden’s attention there was Neilia Hunter. They were married a short while later.
Biden made a photo of himself from those early days available during his tenure as vice president. “Short sleeve button-downs are making a comeback, but health care has never gone out of style,” he wrote as the caption for the image on the official @vp Instagram. “This picture of a young Biden with palm trees in the background and a red short-sleeved shirt went viral online.
After meeting Neilia Hunter while on vacation, Joe Biden desired a closer relationship. The New York Times claims that because Hunter and her family were from upstate New York, Biden applied to the law program at Syracuse University. When Biden was still a graduate student, they got married in 1966.
Between 1966 and 1968, the newlyweds allegedly lived together in a first-floor apartment in Syracuse. At a nearby elementary school, Biden was a pupil, and Hunter worked there as a teacher. They were well-liked in the community, along with their German shepherd.
The Bidens allegedly hosted Sunday dinners, Biden loved cars (unsurprising given his father’s occupation), and he owned a green 1967 Stingray Corvette that was a wedding present from his father. Even though it appears that he traveled around Syracuse in it back then with friends, Biden still owned that car in 2020.
The community was protected by Biden as well. As stated in the article, Biden “appeared out of nowhere to shout down the bullies when a neighborhood kid was attacked for stuttering. “A young boy named Kevin Coyne remembers the future president going after the kids who teased him. Coyne said, “He lit into them,” adding that he had no idea Biden himself stumbled.
After receiving his degree in New York, Joe Biden went back to Delaware and worked “as an attorney for the next four years,” according to History. Then, in 1970, Biden decided to enter his first political contest. In the New Castle County Council, where he was elected, he held office for two years. Prior to turning 30, Biden competed against “Republican incumbent J. Caleb Boggs competing for the U.
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Unexpectedly, Biden won, but shortly after, tragedy struck Biden’s personal life. His wife, two children, and daughter were en route to buy the family a Christmas tree, according to US News. A “tractor-trailer plowed into their station wagon while they were traveling,” killing Biden’s “wife and 13-month-old daughter. Although they were severely hurt, both of Biden’s boys lived. “Biden was sworn in as the U. S. Senate by the hospital bedsides of his sons,” reads his White House bio.
The Secretary of the Senate at the time, Francis Valeo, described how Biden was sworn in during an interview. “He resisted coming down to be sworn in during the regular session. Valeo noted, “He claimed he was unable to leave the children. He was subsequently given the go-ahead to visit Wilmington for the ceremony. Biden reportedly said a few things, according to Valeo, and claimed that “he wasn’t at all sure he was going to run again, that he might just be a one-term senator. ”.
While still mourning the tragic deaths of his wife and children, Joe Biden unintentionally fell in love. In a video for the Democratic National Convention, my brother is heard saying, “There’s this woman; you’ll like her, Joe. So I called her, only to find out she was going out on a date. But her initial response was much funnier. When Joe called me on a Saturday in 1975, I asked him, “How did you come up with this number?,” Jill Biden wrote on Instagram. Jill stated in the DNC tape that Joe asked her to cancel the date and go out with him instead. She explains, “I called and told the guy that I had a friend visiting from out of town and went out with Joe.
I wasn’t into the whole dating thing. However, Joe said, “I fell in love with Jill the moment I met her. When Jill and Joe started dating, Joe revealed that his two sons were also smitten with her. He recalled his sons saying, “We believe it’s time we wed Jill. Joe made a proposal to Jill based on his similar sentiments. But Joe had to make a few attempts before he got the desired outcome. Before finally responding, “Okay, I’ll marry you,” he asked her five times.
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Ashley Biden, a future activist, was born to Joe and Jill Biden in 1981 after their marriage in 1977, according to Harper’s Bazaar. According to Jill, after Ashley was born, “our family was complete,” in a video for the Democratic National Convention. In the same year, Biden took part in a historic Supreme Court nomination. The Supreme Court seat was then proposed by President Ronald Reagan for Sandra Day O’Connor. She was confirmed to the Supreme Court as its first female justice following a 99-to-0 Senate vote.
According to the New York Times, Biden “said he “enthusiastically” supported the nomination because Judge O’Connor had shown legal ability, moral character, and judicial temperament” in a speech to his colleagues prior to the vote. That is the only thing I have to ask, Biden continued. He further enquired as to whether any of the guests or “tourists” present had any comments regarding the nomination.
To be elected to the Senate at such a young age, Joe Biden must possess extraordinary political skills. Time claims that by the time he was chosen in 1972, Biden “was already seen as White House material.”. By 1987, Biden had already announced his intention to run for President in the 1988 election.
“At the time, he was seen by many as a fresh, hopeful alternative to other Democrats. The “Seven Dwarfs” were a group of seven Democratic candidates, and one of them was Joe Biden. However, a plagiarism problem effectively put a stop to his chances of being nominated.
Biden was caught omitting a reference to the speech by British politician Neil Kinnock. Additionally, the media uncovered “previous instances in which Biden had improperly cited Humphrey and Robert Kennedy. “Biden failed a course at Syracuse University Law School because he wrote a paper that used five pages from a published law-review article without using quotation marks or a proper footnote, it was finally revealed. ”.
Even though Biden left the race after the incident, his issues persisted. After a short while, the senator “had a headache that turned out to be a brain aneurysm. “After the procedure, doctors found a second aneurysm, which required additional surgery. According to the doctors, there is no question that Biden would have died if he had continued the race.
Joe Biden went back to his political roots in the 1990s and focused on the Senate. He received a second term as a Delaware senator, according to the Office of the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives. Additionally, Biden served as the Senate Judiciary Committee’s chairman, a position he had held since 1987.
The senator put forth a progressive bill as a result of this significant role. “I introduced the Violence Against Women Act in 1990. “We initially thought that publicizing the impact domestic violence has on American families was the only way to alter the culture,” Biden told Time.
To persuade the other senators, Biden urged both men and women to share their heartbreaking tales of abuse and domestic violence. After more than four years, President Bill Clinton finally signed the act into law in 1994. It was also referred to by Biden as his “proudest legislative accomplishment. ”.
The senator was also intensely interested in foreign policy at this time. For instance, the Los Angeles Times reported in 1991 that “he had voted against authorization for the Persian Gulf War. Biden showed bravery on the international stage as well. Biden met the then-president of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic, while traveling for business. The Washington Post claims that Biden “called him a damned war criminal” in front of him.
Joe Biden’s way of arriving at work remained consistent throughout his tenure as a senator. From Delaware to Washington, D.C., Biden would take an Amtrak train. every day, and at night, return by rail. After years of the same pattern, Biden started in 1972 and earned the nickname “Amtrak Joe.”. ”.
Biden wrote for the Huffington Post, “I started making the 110-mile commute shortly after I was sworn in as a Senator. I could have only become a senator in this manner. I needed to be able to go home and be with my two sons in the evenings after losing their mother and sister in a car accident a month earlier. ”.
Biden told a sweet tale about his birthday that fell on a workday. While the senator had to be in Washington, D.C., Biden’s daughter was organizing a party. , to be put to a vote. In Wilmington, his daughter was waiting for him when he boarded the train early in the evening, according to Biden. I blew out the candle, ate a piece of cake, opened her gift, and kissed her before getting back on the train to cast my vote. She and my wife also sang “Happy Birthday.”.
When he was selected to be Vice President, Biden finally got off the train after 36 years on it. At the time, Biden said, “I’ve traveled on Amtrak for more than 7,000 round trips throughout my career.
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The official White House website states that on April 25, 2019, Biden “announced his candidacy for President of the United States.”. Biden’s campaign was “built from the ground up around three pillars: the fight for our nation’s soul, the need to rebuild our middle class, which is the backbone of our country, and a call for unity, to act as One America,” according to the website.
He will have to compete with the current front-runner, President Donald Trump, in order to implement his strategy. One of the most tense periods in political history was the aftermath of the 2020 election. The Pew Research Center reports a 7% increase in voter turnout from the 2016 election.
Additionally, “66% of U.
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Voting in the 2020 election was restricted to “adult citizens.”. Trump made false allegations of voter fraud after Biden won the election. Trump didn’t acknowledge Biden’s inauguration as president for nearly a month.
After experiencing an emotional victory, Biden took office and had to deal with the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. He stated that his objective was to administer 100 million vaccinations in his first 100 days, according to NBC. Biden’s original target was 200 million vaccinations in his first 100 days, but he exceeded that number. “Biden reached his goal of 200 million vaccinations one week before the 100-day mark.
