Who Is Joe Biden (Joseph Robinette Biden Jr)? Born in Pennsylvania on November 20, 1942, Joe Biden briefly worked as an attorney before turning to politics. He became the fifth-youngest U.S. senator in history as well as Delaware’s longest-serving senator. His 2008 presidential campaign never gained momentum, but Democratic nominee Barack Obama later selected him as his running mate.

When Obama was elected in 2008, Biden became the 47th vice president of the United States. Biden earned a second term as vice president when President Obama was re-elected to the presidency in 2012. In 2017, Obama presented Biden with the Presidential Medal of Freedom with distinction for his service to the United States.

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr Early Years

Long before reaching one of the highest political offices in the nation, Joe Biden—born on November 20, 1942—grew up in the blue-collar city of Scranton in northeast Pennsylvania. His father, Joseph Biden Sr., worked cleaning furnaces and as a used car salesman. His mother was Catherine Eugenia “Jean” Finnegan.

Biden credits his parents with instilling in him toughness, hard work and perseverance. He has recalled his father frequently saying, “Champ, the measure of a man is not how often he is knocked down, but how quickly he gets up.” He’s also said that when he would come home sullen because he had been bullied by one of the bigger kids in the neighborhood, his mother would tell him, “Bloody their nose so you can walk down the street the next day!'”

Biden attended St. Paul’s Elementary School in Scranton. In 1955, when he was 13 years old, the family moved to Mayfield, Delaware—a rapidly growing middle-class community sustained primarily by the nearby DuPont chemical company.

As a child, Biden struggled with a stutter, and kids called him “Dash” and “Joe Impedimenta” to mock him. He eventually overcame his speech impediment by memorizing long passages of poetry and reciting them out loud in front of the mirror.

Biden attended the St. Helena School in Pennsylvania until he gained acceptance into the prestigious Archmere Academy. Although he had to work by washing the school windows and weeding the gardens to help his family afford tuition, Biden had long dreamed of attending the school, which he called “the object of my deepest desire, my Oz.” At Archmere, Biden was a solid student and, despite his small size, a standout receiver on the football team. “He was a skinny kid,” his coach remembered, “but he was one of the best pass receivers I had in 16 years as a coach.” Biden graduated from Archmere in 1961.

College, Marriage and Law School

Biden attended the nearby University of Delaware, where he studied history and political science and played football. He would later admit that he spent his first two years of college far more interested in football, girls and parties than academics. But he also developed a sharp interest in politics during these years, spurred in part by the inspiring inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961.

On a spring break trip to the Bahamas during his junior year, Biden met a Syracuse University student named Neilia Hunter and, in his own words, “fell ass over tin cup in love—at first sight.” Encouraged by his new love, he applied himself more fully to his studies and was accepted into the Syracuse University Law School upon his graduation from Delaware in 1965. Biden and Hunter married the next year, in 1966.

Biden was at best a mediocre law student. During his first year at Syracuse, he flunked a class for failing to properly cite a reference to a law review article. Although he claimed it was an accidental oversight, the incident would haunt him later in his career.

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr Early Political Career

After graduating from law school in 1968, Biden moved to Wilmington, Delaware, to begin practicing at a law firm. He also became an active member of the Democratic Party, and in 1970 he was elected to the New Castle County Council. While serving as councilman, in 1971, Biden started his own law firm.

In addition to his increasingly busy professional life, Biden had three children: Joseph Biden III (born in 1969), Hunter Biden (born in 1970) and Naomi Biden (born in 1971). “Everything was happening faster than I expected,” Biden said about his life at the time.

In 1972, the Delaware Democratic Party encouraged a 29-year-old Biden to run against the popular Republican incumbent J. Caleb Boggs for the United States Senate. Although few thought he stood any chance, Biden ran a tireless campaign organized mostly by family members. His sister, Valerie Biden Owens, served as his campaign manager, and both of his parents campaigned daily. That November, in a tight race with a large turnout, Biden won an upset victory to become the fifth-youngest U.S. senator elected in the nation’s history.

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr Family Tragedy

Just as all of Biden’s wildest dreams seemed to be coming true, he was struck by devastating tragedy. A week before Christmas in 1972, Biden’s wife and three children were involved in a terrible car accident while out shopping for a Christmas tree. The accident killed his wife and daughter, and severely injured both of his sons, Beau and Hunter. Biden was inconsolable and even considered suicide. He recalls, “I began to understand how despair led people to just cash in; how suicide wasn’t just an option but a rational option … I felt God had played a horrible trick on me, and I was angry.”

Nevertheless, at the encouragement of his family, Biden decided to honor his commitment to represent the people of Delaware in the Senate. He skipped the swearing-in ceremony for new senators in Washington and instead took the oath of office from his sons’ hospital room. In order to spend as much time as possible with his sons, Biden decided to continue to live in Wilmington, commuting to and from Washington each day by Amtrak train, a practice he maintained through his entire long tenure in the Senate.

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr Senate Years

From 1973 to 2009, Biden served a distinguished Senate career. During his time in the Senate, Biden won respect as one of the body’s leading foreign policy experts, serving as chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations for several years. His many foreign policy positions included advocating for strategic arms limitation with the Soviet Union, promoting peace and stability in the Balkans, expanding NATO to include former Soviet-bloc nations and opposing the First Gulf War. In later years, he called for American action to end the genocide in Darfur and spoke out against President George W. Bush’s handling of the Iraq War, particularly opposing the troop surge of 2007.

In addition to foreign policy, Biden was an outspoken proponent of tougher crime laws. In 1987, Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork’s failure to receive confirmation was largely attributed to harsh questioning by Biden, who was then chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In 1994, Biden sponsored the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act to add 100,000 police officers and increase sentences for a host of crimes.

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr Presidential Ambitions

In 1987, having established himself as one of Washington’s most prominent Democratic lawmakers, Biden decided to run for the U.S. presidency. He dropped out of the Democratic primary, however, after reports surfaced that he had plagiarized part of a speech.

Biden had been suffering severe headaches during the campaign, and shortly after he dropped out in 1988, doctors discovered that he had two life-threatening brain aneurysms. Complications from the ensuing brain surgery led to blood clots in his lungs, which, in turn, caused him to undergo another surgery. Always resilient, Biden returned to the Senate after surviving a seven-month recovery period.

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr As U.S. Vice President

In 2007, 20 years after his first unsuccessful presidential bid, Biden once again decided to run for the U.S. presidency. Despite his years of experience in the Senate, however, Biden’s campaign failed to generate much momentum in a field dominated by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Biden dropped out after receiving less than one percent of the vote in the crucial Iowa caucuses.

Several months later, though, Obama—having secured the Democratic nomination after a hard-fought campaign against Clinton—selected Biden as his running mate. With his working-class roots, Biden helped the Obama campaign communicate its message of economic recovery to the blue-collar voters crucial to swing states like Ohio and Pennsylvania.

On November 2, 2008, Barack Obama and Joe Biden convincingly defeated the Republican ticket of Arizona Senator John McCain and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. On January 20, 2009, Obama was sworn in as the 44th U.S. president and Biden became the 47th vice president.

While Biden mostly served in the role of behind-the-scenes adviser to the president, he took particularly active roles in formulating federal policies relating to Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2010, the vice president used his well-established Senate connections to help secure passage of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty between the United States and the Russian Federation.

Biden seemed to relish the opportunity to play a crucial role in the Obama Administration. Following the 2008 election, he said, “This is an historic moment. I started my career fighting for civil rights, and to be a part of what is both a moment in American history where the best people, the best ideas, the how can I say it?—the single best reflection of the American people can be called upon—to be at that moment, with a guy who has such incredible talent and who is also a breakthrough figure in multiple ways—I genuinely find that exciting. It’s a new America. It’s the reflection of a new America.”

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr Re-Election and Second Term

Running for re-election in 2012, the Obama-Biden team faced Republican challenger Mitt Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, and Romney’s vice-presidential running mate, U.S. Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. Obama defeated Romney in the 2012 election, earning a second term as president and Biden another term as vice president. President Obama received nearly 60 percent of the electoral vote, and won the popular vote by more than 1 million ballots.

Later that year, Biden showed just how influential a vice president he could be. He was instrumental in achieving a bipartisan agreement on tax increases and spending cuts to avoid the fiscal cliff crisis. With a looming deadline, Biden was able to hammer out a deal with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. On January 1, 2013, the fiscal cliff bill passed in the Senate after months of tough negotiations. The House of Representatives approved it later that day.

Around this time, Biden also became a leading figure in the national debate about gun control. He was selected to head up a special task force on the issue after the school shooting at a Newtown, Connecticut elementary school that December. Biden delivered solutions for reducing gun violence across the nation to President Obama in January 2013. He helped craft 19 actions that the president could take on the issue using his power of executive order among other recommendations.

Personal Life and Post-White House

Biden has been married to his second wife, Jill Biden, since 1977. The couple’s daughter, Ashley, was born in 1981. On May 30, 2015, Biden suffered another personal loss when his son Beau died at the age of 46, after battling brain cancer. “Beau Biden was, quite simply, the finest man any of us have ever known,” Biden wrote in a statement about his son.

Following this tragedy, Biden considered a run for the presidency, but he put the speculation to rest in October 2015 when he announced that he would not seek the 2016 Democratic nomination. In the White House Rose Garden with his wife Jill and President Obama by his side, Biden made his announcement, referring to his son’s recent death in his decision making: “As my family and I have worked through the grieving process, I’ve said all along what I’ve said time and again to others, that it may very well be that the process by the time we get through it closes the window. I’ve concluded it has closed.”

Biden added: “While I will not be a candidate, I will not be silent. I intend to speak out clearly and forcefully, to influence as much as I can where we stand as a party and where we need to go as a nation.”

On January 12, 2017, President Obama presented Biden with the Presidential Medal of Freedom with distinction, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in a surprise ceremony at the White House. Obama called Biden “the best vice president America’s ever had” and a “lion of American history,” and told him he was being honored for ‘‘faith in your fellow Americans, for your love of country and a lifetime of service that will endure through the generations.’’ Biden gave an emotional impromptu speech thanking the president, First Lady Michelle Obama, his wife Jill and his children.

As promised, Biden refused to remain quiet even after leaving office. Known for his opposition to Obama’s successor, Donald Trump, he occasionally surfaced to criticize the 45th president. At an October 2017 event he declared that Trump “doesn’t understand governance,” and the following month he blasted the White House incumbent for his seeming defense of white nationalist groups.

Additionally, Biden occasionally revealed his mixed feelings on bypassing the chance to run for president in 2016. In March 2017, he said he “could have won,” and in November, he elaborated on those thoughts in an interview with Oprah Winfrey. “No woman or man should announce they’re running for president unless they can answer two questions,” he said. “One, do they truly believe they’re the most qualified person for that moment? I believed I was — but was I prepared to be able to give my whole heart, my whole soul, and all my intention to the endeavor? And I knew I wasn’t.”

A few weeks later, on the talk show The View, Biden had a much-publicized interaction with co-host Meghan McCain, whose dad, Senator John McCain, had been diagnosed with the same brain cancer that killed Beau Biden. When Meghan McCain became visibly upset while discussing the disease, the VP gently took her hand to console her, pointing out how Senator McCain inspired everyone with his courage. “There is hope,” he said. “And if anybody can make it, your dad [can].”

In an interview with Al Sharpton the following spring, Biden said he hadn’t ruled out running for president in 2020, though he still hadn’t recovered enough from his son’s death to devote himself to the effort. “I’m really hoping that some other folks step up,” he said. “I think we have some really good people. … I got to walk away knowing that it is — there’s somebody who can do it and can win because we’ve got to win. We’ve got to win in 2020.”

The results of a Harvard CAPS/Harris poll in June suggested that Democrats weren’t ready to let Biden walk away just yet, as he topped the poll with 32 percent of participants naming him their favorite for the party’s nomination in 2020. Hillary Clinton came in second at 18 percent, with Bernie Sanders finishing third at 16 percent.

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr Quick Facts:

Personal:

Birth date: November 20, 1942

Birth place: Scranton, Pennsylvania

Birth name: Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.

Father: Joseph Robinette Biden Sr., car salesman

Mother: Catherine Eugenia (Finnegan) Biden

Marriages: Jill (Jacobs) Biden (June 17, 1977-present); Neilia (Hunter) Biden (August 27, 1966-December 18, 1972, her death)

Children: with Jill (Jacobs) Biden: Ashley; with Neilia (Hunter) Biden: Naomi Christina, Robert Hunter, Joseph Robinette “Beau” III

Education: University of Delaware, B.A., 1965; Syracuse University Law School, J.D., 1968

Religion: Roman Catholic

Other Joseph Robinette Biden Jr Facts:

Had a stuttering problem as a child.

Biden’s son, Beau Biden, was the Attorney General of Delaware.

Delaware’s longest serving senator.

Timeline:

1968-1970 – Defense attorney for criminal cases in Wilmington, Delaware.

1970-1972 – Serves on the New Castle County Council in Delaware.

1972 – Is first elected to the Senate at age 29, defeating Republican Senator J. Caleb Boggs. Wins re-election in 1978, 1984, 1990, 1996, 2002 and 2008.

December 18, 1972 – While Christmas shopping, Biden’s first wife, Neilia Hunter Biden, and daughter, Naomi Biden, are killed in a car accident. His sons are badly injured, but survive.

January 5, 1973 – Is sworn in as US senator of Delaware at son Beau Biden’s bedside in the hospital.

1987-1995 – Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary.

June 9, 1987 – Enters the 1988 presidential race, but drops out three months later following reports of plagiarism and false claims about his academic record.

February 1988 – Undergoes surgery to repair an aneurysm in an artery that supplies blood to the brain.

January 20, 1990 – Introduces a bill that becomes the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The act addresses sexual assault and domestic violence. It is signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994.

2001-2003 – Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

2002 – Votes to authorize military intervention in Iraq, but later becomes a vocal critic of the conflict.

2007-2009 – Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

January 31, 2007 – Files a statement of candidacy with the Federal Elections Commission to run for president.

August 1, 2007 – Releases his memoir, “Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics.”

January 3, 2008 – Announces his withdrawal from the presidential race.

August 23, 2008 – Is named the vice presidential running mate of Barack Obama.

November 4, 2008 – Is elected vice president of the United States.

January 15, 2009 – Resigns from the Senate.

January 20, 2009 – Is sworn in as vice president of the United States.

February 7, 2009 – Delivers first major speech as vice president at a security conference in Germany.

September 1, 2010 – Presides over a ceremony in Iraq to formally mark the end of the US combat mission in Iraq.

November 6, 2012 – US President Obama and Biden are re-elected, defeating Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.

January 20, 2013 – Is sworn in for his second term as vice president of the United States.

October 2, 2014 – Speaking at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Biden tells attendees that ISIS has been inadvertently strengthened by actions taken by Turkey, the UAE and other Middle Eastern allies to help opposition groups fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

October 4, 2014 – Biden speaks by telephone with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan regarding remarks made at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. He apologizes “for any implication that Turkey or other allies and partners in the region had intentionally supplied or facilitated the growth of ISIL or other violent extremists in Syria.”

May 30, 2015 – Biden’s eldest son, Beau Biden, passes away from brain cancer at age 46.

October 21, 2015 – Says he will not seek the presidency, announcing that the window for a successful campaign “has closed.”

December 6, 2016 – Doesn’t rule out running for president in 2020, saying “I’m not committing not to run. I’m not committing to anything. I learned a long time ago fate has a strange way of intervening.”

January 12, 2017 – Obama surprises Biden by presenting him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, during a White House ceremony.

February 1, 2017 – Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, launch the Biden Foundation, an organization that will work on seven issues: foreign policy; Biden’s cancer initiative; community colleges and military families; protecting children; equality; ending violence against women; and strengthening the middle class.

February 7, 2017 – Is named the Benjamin Franklin presidential practice professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where he will lead the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. He will also serve as the founding chair of the University of Delaware’s Biden Institute, the university announces.

March 1, 2017 – Biden receives the Congressional Patriot Award from the Bipartisan Policy Center. He receives the honor in recognition of his work crafting bipartisan legislation with Republicans and Democrats.

November 14, 2017 – Biden’s memoir, “Promise Me Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose,” is published.

I can define America in one word: Possibilities

We are the nation that built the Hoover Dam and the Transcontinental Railroad. Landed a man on the moon. Cured polio. Built the internet. Sequenced the human genome. And we will be the nation to end cancer as we know it.

This is the history of the journey of this country: It’s one of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. I believe that as much today as I did when I got elected to the United States Senate as a 29-year-old kid. But we have to remember who we are. At our best, America has always thought big. That’s why the negativity, the pettiness, the small-mindedness of our politics today drives me crazy. We’re better than this.

It’s time to reach deep into the soul of this country and once again give everyone — and I mean everyone — the opportunity to achieve the impossible. It’s time to look beyond 24-hour news cycles and 140-character arguments. It’s time to treat each other with dignity and respect. Not as opponents, but as fellow Americans. Because that’s what we are.

This is a time for big dreams and American possibilities. If that’s what you believe — and you’re ready to help elect folks who believe that, and to support groups and causes that embody that spirit — then I’m asking you to join me today.

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. Biography and Profile (Goodreadbiography / Biography / CNN)