Brief History and Facts about Joe Baiden

Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Biden moved with his family to Delaware in 1953. He received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Delaware in 1965 and a Juris Doctor from Syracuse University in 1968. He was elected to the New Castle County Council in 1970 and the U.S. Senate in 1972. As a senator, Biden drafted and led the effort to pass the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act and the Violence Against Women Act. He also oversaw six U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearings, including the contentious hearings for Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. Biden ran unsuccessfully for the 1988 and 2008 Democratic presidential nominations. In 2008, Obama chose Biden as his running mate, and he was a close counselor to Obama during his two terms as vice president. In the 2020 presidential election, the Democratic Party nominated Biden for president. He selected Kamala Harris as his running mate, and they defeated Republican incumbents Donald Trump and Mike Pence. He became the oldest president in U.S. history and the first to serve with a female vice president.

As president, Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent recession. He signed bipartisan bills on infrastructure and manufacturing. He proposed the Build Back Better Act, which failed in Congress, but aspects of which were incorporated into the Inflation Reduction Act that he signed into law in 2022. Biden appointed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. He worked with congressional Republicans to resolve the 2023 debt-ceiling crisis by negotiating a deal to raise the debt ceiling. In his foreign policy, Biden restored America's membership in the Paris Agreement. He oversaw the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan that ended the war in Afghanistan, leading to the collapse of the Afghan government and the Taliban seizing control. He responded to the Russian invasion of Ukraine by imposing sanctions on Russia and authorizing civilian and military aid to Ukraine. During the Israel–Hamas war, Biden condemned the actions of Hamas as terrorism, announced military support for Israel and sent limited humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

In April 2023, Biden announced his reelection campaign and, after the Democratic primaries, became the party's presumptive nominee in the 2024 presidential election. Concerns about Biden's age and health persisted throughout his first term, with renewed scrutiny after his performance during the first presidential debate on June 27. On July 21, he withdrew his candidacy, becoming the first U.S. president to decline to seek reelection after securing enough delegates to win renomination. He endorsed Vice President Harris to be the Democratic presidential nominee, who went on to lose to Donald Trump in the general election. This will give Biden the distinction of being the second president whose predecessor and successor are the same person, after Benjamin Harrison, whose predecessor and successor were Grover Cleveland

Here are 10 facts about Joe Biden:

1. Joe Biden was born on November 20, 1942, in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

2. He is the 46th President of the United States, inaugurated on January 20, 2021.

3. Biden earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Delaware and his law degree from Syracuse University College of Law.

4. Before becoming President, Biden served as Vice President under Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017.

5. He represented Delaware in the U.S. Senate from 1973 to 2009.

6. Biden's first wife, Neilia, and their daughter, Naomi, died in a car accident in 1972. He married Jill Jacobs in 1977.

7. Joe Biden has two sons, Beau and Hunter, from his first marriage, and a daughter, Ashley, from his second marriage.

8. Beau Biden, his eldest son, passed away from brain cancer in 2015.

9. Joe Biden's 2024 presidential campaign slogan is "Build a Better America."

10. Biden supports policies like expanding affordable healthcare, addressing climate change, and strengthening alliances with international partners.