It was a heavily - contend crusade that had the entire U.S. — indeed much of the cosmos — on edge : Who was conk out to become the forty-sixth president of the United States ? masses watched as six states — Georgia , Nevada , Arizona , Pennsylvania , Michigan and Wisconsin — had answer too faithful to call on election night . But over the next few days , all these states declared for the former U.S. frailty chairperson . In all , Biden won 306 electoral votes to incumbent Donald Trump ’s 232 [ source : Lewis ] .
The 2020 election was notable for several reasons . First , it had the high voter turnout since 1900 , with each party have more than 74 million votes . Biden alone drive more than 81 million votes , the most ever cast for a president in an election in U.S. chronicle . And his running mateKamala Harrisis the first adult female and first person of colour to hold the post of frailty Chief Executive . The election was also noteworthy because Trump turn down to confess his loss , claiming without any evidence that the vote was set up [ source : The Associated Press ] .
Biden convey office during a riotous fourth dimension . There is the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic . Unemployment is high , and the U.S. economy is weak . The summer of 2020 was marked by protests against racism , police savagery and even against the requirement in some states to wear a masque to stop the spreading of the coronavirus . And just two workweek before his inauguration , a mob of Trump supportersstormed the Capitol , mistakenly believe the election had been " stolen " and that Trump was the literal winner .
In November , after he had secured triumph , Biden declared that it was clock time to heal . " I sought this office to restore the soul of America and to make America honor around the world again and to unite us here at home,“he said in his victory speech .
So , what will a Biden administration be like ? We ’ll take a looking at at Joe Biden , his 36 years as a popular senator , his eight years as vice president alongside President Barack Obama , and how he plans to regularise onclimate change , immigrationand other blistering - button issues .
Biography of Joe Biden
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was born Nov. 20 , 1942 , in Scranton , Pennsylvania , the son of Joe and Jean Biden . He was the old of four in an Irish - Catholic family . His Father-God was a business proprietor of depart degrees of winner . Biden Sr . worked as acarsalesman , a sales representative for Amoco Oil , co - possessor of a craw - sprinkle ship’s company , an administrator in a marine sealant manufacturing firm , areal estate agentand a boiler cleaner for a warming caller [ source : Chapman ] .
When Joe Biden was 10 , his syndicate strike to a suburban area of Wilmington , Delaware , where he attended Archmere , a private Catholic schooling . He afterward take a part - time job to help pay for the tuition . As a boy , Biden had a debilitating stammer for which he was bullied by classmates and even a teacher . He stood before amirrorreciting a line from Ralph Waldo Emerson ’s " The American Scholar " over and over , observe themusclesin his face for learn how to control them [ source : Brozyna ] .
Biden had been a lackluster student in college . His first yr at the University of Delaware yielded him a grade - point norm of 1.9 [ source : Brozyna ] . When he graduated in 1965 and infix law school , his performance was much the same , ranking 76th out of a class of 85 students . Still , he was convinced his wretched academic showing was due to a want of interest group , not intellect . He laterwrote in his memoir , " Promises to Keep " ( published in 2007 ) , " The body of work did n’t seem so arduous , just boring ; and I was a life-threatening combining of arrogant and sloppy . "
In 1964 , Biden had gone to the Bahamas for spring breakout , where he snuck into a hotel consortium and met his next wife , Neilia Hunter . In 1966 , the couple married and Biden went back to school . He obtained his constabulary degree from Syracuse University in 1968 and practiced law in Delaware until he was elect at 29 age old to the U.S. Senate in 1972 , becoming the fifth - immature senator in U.S. history .
In 1969 , Biden ’s first Logos , Joseph ( nicknamed " Beau " ) , was born . He was follow by Robert Hunter in 1970 and Naomi in 1971 . Tragedy struck the Biden folk in December 1972 , when Neilia and the three Biden children were involve in an motorcar accident while outChristmasshopping . Neilia and Naomi were killed ; Beau and Hunter were injured .
Biden received the news while at his senate billet . He enunciate he considered felo-de-se after put up such a profound deprivation [ source : Dwyer ] . Ultimately , he chose to endure . He raised his two son as a exclusive parent with the avail of his baby who moved in with them . And he bump love again ; in 1977 , he espouse Jill Jacobs . She has a doctorate in education and teach English at Northern Virginia Community College . In 1981 , Joe and Jill Biden welcomed a girl named Ashley .
The Bidens suffered yet another gut - wrench loss in 2015 when 46 - year - honest-to-goodness Beau , then serving as a chieftain in the National Guard and the two - sentence lawyer superior general of Delaware , conk out after a longsighted fight with brain cancer [ source : Shear ] .
Hunter Biden is an lawyer and former lobbyist whose disruptive personal life sentence and remunerative stints with foreign companies land him at the center of the Ukraine controversy that led to President Trump ’s impeachment ( more on that afterward ) [ source : Entous ] . Ashley Biden is a social prole and militant who possess a clothing logical argument call Livelihood that donates its proceeds to societal public assistance organisation [ source : Igoe ] . The Bidens presently have six grandchildren [ source : Phillips ] .
In addition to his career as a senator , Biden taught constitutional police force for 18 years at Widener College , now Widener University . Despite becoming the vice - presidential candidate during the 2008 campaign , he still taught the year when available .
During the 2008 campaign , Biden ’s medical history raised questions about his ability to do as vice United States President . In 1988 , he endure abrainaneurysm that almost kill him . He had dropped out of the presidential raceway a few calendar month prior ( more on that on the next page ) , after experiencing what he took to be a pinchednerveand a headache .
After a visit to the doctor , Biden was taken to emergency cranial surgery . He developed abloodclot in hislungsduring recuperation and suffered a second aneurism . Biden undergo a subsequent cranial surgery the following May [ source : Caputo ] . Biden said the experience changed him ; he espouse the dichotomous outlook of throwing himself into his role of senator while not perspire the small stuff .
Political Career of Joe Biden
Joe Biden start his political career at the age of 27 . He bring home the bacon a fanny on the New Castle County , Delaware , council in 1970 . He served on the council for two years before get to the leap to the U.S. Senate . At the age of 29 , Biden unseat Sen. James Caleb Boggs ( Rep. ) , the two - term officeholder , in an distressed victory [ informant : life history ] . Two weeks after bring home the bacon the keister , Biden ’s family was involved in the auto accident that took his married woman and girl ’s life . He was avow in at his sons ' infirmary elbow room as the fifth - youngest senator in history . This would be the beginning of a 36 - yr career as a senator present Delaware .
Biden commuted toWashingtonand plate to Delaware each night by train to appear after his two boy . The geartrain ride was a use he continued throughout his career as a senator , and it earned him a report as a Washington insider who lived outside of Washington , an outsider inside the Beltway [ source : Cillizza ] .
Biden made his first run for the White House during the 1988 safari . He ran on the hope that he would " rekindle the fervidness of idealism in our society , " as he put it [ source : Witt ] . His chances looked full until The New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd accused Biden of plagiarizing speeches from British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock . Biden " becameKinnock " during one speech , lifting not only Kinnock ’s words , but part of his life story as well [ source : Shafer ] . At an Iowa debate in August 1987 , Biden used parts of a Kinnock speech that referenced being first in his family to assist college . The citation was straight for Kinnock , but not for Biden .
run coach for Biden after defended him , steer out that Biden had used office of Kinnock ’s speeches with proper attribution throughout the campaign . But the Iowa spoken communication and an investigation that bring out he ’d plagiarized one - third of a newspaper publisher he wrote in law school led to the sinking of his political campaign . Amid public shout , Biden dropped out three calendar month into the 1988 race .
Despite the controversy , he deal to keep his senate seat . Back in Washington , and following his two aneurysms , Biden became one of the Senate ’s most active members [ author : Brozyna ] . He became a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1975 , and following his dropout from the 1988 race , he also get together the Senate Judiciary Committee , service as electric chair from 1987 to 1995 [ source : Senate.gov ] .
Biden ’s long incumbency in Washington and membership on those prized committees gave him both singular power and opened him up to critique . As electric chair of the Foreign Relations Committee , he gained alien insurance policy experience encounter with heads of state . As chair of the Judiciary Committee , he passionately opposed the substantiation ofSupreme Courtjustices Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas . In the end , Biden was able to rock restrained Republicans to block the Bork nominating speech , a victory on the heels of Biden ’s failed presidential run [ source : Keith ] .
In 2007 , Biden made a second run for the White House . He spend out after coming in fifth in theIowa Caucus .
Due to his interest in strange policy and chairmanship on the Foreign Relations Committee , Biden is considered one of the United States ' foremost self-assurance on foreign policy , but that ’s just one key take that ’s authoritative to Biden .
Key Issues and Policy of Joe Biden
Back in 2007 , when Biden launched his second presidential campaign , he made foreign policy his fundamental issue , debate that the on-going War in Iraq was possibly " the biggest extraneous policy fuckup in America ’s history " [ source : Guttman ] . Biden accept criticism for this posture on the war , especially since he ab initio vote in favor of sending U.S. troops into Iraq in 2002 . He later on changed his opinion , and in February 2007 , he suggest that Congress repeal its authorization of the use of personnel in the Middle easterly nation , which would have effectively ended the war [ source : Giroux ] .
For the 2020 election , Biden is focus on a raw set of primal topic go with health care . Biden served alongside President Obama when the Affordable Care Act was narrowly pass and remains a strong advocate of the landmark health care jurisprudence , which provided health coverage to gazillion of uninsured Americans and eviscerate the ire of lowly - government conservatives . While other former popular presidential hopefuls have embraced a exclusive - payer " Medicare for All " modelling , Biden advocates adding a " public choice " to the ACA [ seed : Glueck ] .
clime modification is also at the top of Biden ’s priority tilt . No later - comer to environmentalism , then - Senator Biden introduced a banknote call the " Global Climate Protection Act " back in 1986 that warned against evaporate polar ice caps and rising ocean level [ source : PolitiFact ] . He did not formally sign on on to a Green New Deal like other former Democratic candidates , but he proposed a $ 2 trillion plan to make the U.S. carbon neutral by 2050 [ root : Wise ] .
In both of his most recent presidential runnel , Biden was a staunch critic of Republican taxation cuts for the moneyed Americans . While he does n’t conceive in " penalise the fertile " with usurious tax rates , he does think that everyone should pay their fair share without overwork loopholes . In the 2020 election , Biden campaigned on a promise to repeal the 2017 corporal tax cuts signed by President Trump [ source : Chicago Tribune ] .
What about racial justice and patrol reform ? When he was a senator from Delaware , Biden cover a " hard on criminal offence " role that culminated in his authorship of the 1994 Crime Bill , which increased the nationwide police force by 100,000 and enlarged prisons to reconcile tougher sentencing laws . Some of Biden ’s critics in the Black community charge him for creating the weather condition that led to the mass immurement of pitch-black men . Today , Biden has exchange his posture , apologizing for the failure of the 1994 measure and advocating for criminal justness reform that reduces the prison house population and recognizes the being of racial bias in policing and sentencing [ source : Kranish ] .
When it occur to hot - push social issues , Biden ’s stance largely align with the popular mainstream . Although a drill Catholic , Biden supports abortion right field , and in 2019 rescinded his support for the Hyde Amendment , which had barred any federal funding for abortions [ beginning : McCammon ] . On gun control , Biden support a ban on the sale of any young assault - panache rifles and a buyback program for existing assault rifles [ germ : Lybrand ] . On LGBTQ rights , Biden has evolve from opposing same - sexual practice wedlock in the 1990s to pledging his financial backing for it in 2012 even before President Obama did [ source : Nagourney and Kaplan ] .
Next we ’ll look at Biden ’s two - full term incumbency as vice president .
Biden as Vice President
At 3 a.m. on Aug. 23 , 2008 , theObamacampaign sent outtext messagesandemailsto supporters let them bonk he ’d choose Joe Biden to be his track Paraguay tea . At the Democratic Convention five days later , Biden accepted [ reference : Reuters ] .
While Biden and Obama initially differed in personality and temperament , their relationship rise into a bud " bromance " culminate in Obama ’s surprise 2016 decision to present Biden the Presidential Medal of Freedom , the nation ’s highest civilian honor [ seed : New York Times , CNN ] .
During his eight years as vice president , Biden served in a identification number of high - visibility capacities at President Obama ’s asking . When the two men took office , the U.S. was grind to a halt in the groovy Recession . Obama tapped Biden to superintend the $ 840 billion recovery package include in the American Recovery and Investment Act . Biden also used his bipartisan Senate connections to help give the Dodd - Frank Act to tighten regularization of the financial sector [ source : Obama White House ] .
Biden also played a primal function in preventing the U.S. from careening over the so - called " fiscal drop " in 2013 . He entered tense negotiations with Republican Senator Mitch McConnell that result in critical compromises acceptable to both parties [ rootage : life story ] .
With his extensive strange insurance experience , Biden represented the Obama government in State Department visits to more than 50 countries , include gamey - profile meetings and dialogue with China ’s President Xi Jinping , and the successful release of political prisoner held in Ukraine and Azerbaijan [ source : Obama White House ] . In the Middle East , Biden play a key leadership role in couch White House insurance on Iraq and Afghanistan , and was influential in the Obama administration ’s anti - terrorism exploit , including the increase use of airstrikes convey by unmanned drones [ source : Council on Foreign Relations ] .
Biden was an former advocator for stronger laws protecting adult female from domesticated force ; he wrote and helped pass the original " Violence Against Women Act " ( VAWA ) in 1994 [ seed : Law ] . As vice Chief Executive , Biden helped advertise the third reauthorization of the VAWA through a shared Congress , and he was charged with charge the first White House adviser on Violence Against Women . Biden also took thrill of the administration ’s answer to a growing epidemic of campus sexual ferocity [ origin : Obama White House ] .
One of Biden ’s final duties as vice President of the United States was a personal one ; to superintend the " Cancer Moonshot " mission launched by President Obama in 2016 , " to make a decennary ’s worth of progress in Cancer the Crab bar , diagnosing and intervention , in five years,“according to the Obama White House website . Biden turn a loss his son Beau to brain cancer in 2015 and consecrate his last year in office to make a internal task military force on cancer research , to beef up external cooperation toward find a cure , and to agitate for the 21st Century CURES Act , which apportion $ 1.8 billion toward cancer research funding and another $ 1 billion to combat the opioid crisis .
Biden’s 2020 Presidential Campaign
Biden sat out the 2016 presidential race , explaining that he was still too upset over Beau ’s death to give his full DOE to a presidential drive . But after Donald Trump took office , Biden became a outspoken critic of Trump administration policies that actively dismantled the Obama administration ’s employment on issues like immigration , wellness care and the surround . Biden afterward said he was also deeply disturbed by President Trump ’s response to the 2017 skirmish in Charlottesville , Virginia , sparked by a white supremacist exchange [ seed : life story ] .
As Biden edged closer to herald a White House run in 2019 , allegations emerged that he had acted unsuitably around female staffers and colleagues , including accusation that he had kissed one woman on the back of the head word and sexually assaulted another woman in a Senate hallway in 1993 [ reference : Relman and Sheth ] . Biden addressed the accusations , but total short of apologizing .
Another concern was Biden ’s old age . If elected , Biden would enter the White House at 78 age previous , making him the onetime prexy to hold billet . And with Biden ’s history of aneurysms , his wellness was a licit business organisation . Biden ’s cause was in all probability helped by the fact that his main competitor during the primary , Bernie Sanders , was also in his 70s and had his own substantial health problem .
Despite the rough outset , Biden still led in other polls of potential challengers to President Trump , prompting the former vice Chief Executive to formally foretell his 2020 campaigning in April 2019 [ source : Biography ] .
Things took an unexpected twist in September 2019 when an intelligence section whistleblower claimed that President Trump had abused his top executive to pressure the Ukrainian government to investigate both Biden and his son , Hunter . Trump claimed that Hunter had committed fraud as a panel member at Burisma Holdings , a Ukrainian energy company , and that Biden had used his influence as frailty president to quash a Ukrainian investigation [ source : Bruggeman and Tatum ] . The Ukraine controversy ultimately led to President Trump ’s impeachment by the House of Representatives and ultimate acquittal by the Senate .
Biden register poor showings in early Democratic primaries , but was still largely seen as the gentleman to beat . In telecast debates , more giving nominee set on his record on the 1994 law-breaking invoice and his failure to support bus to racially incorporate public schools in the 1970s [ source : Biography ] . The turning point came when Biden gain ground the South Carolina primary quill in convincing fashion , solidify his position with opprobrious voters , a key constituency if Democrats hoped to pulsate President Trump in 2020 .
In short order , Biden ’s top popular rivals — Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders — dropped out of the race in March and April 2020 , clearing the way for Biden to become the 2020 Democratic nominee .
Joe Biden as President
Joe Biden pledged to put up the most diverse cabinet in U.S. chronicle , and if his candidates are confirmed we will see the first aboriginal American locker secretary ( Congresswoman Deb Haaland as interior secretary ) ; the first distaff treasury secretary ( Janet Yellen ) ; the first Latino motherland security chief ( Alejandro N. Mayorkas ) ; the first openly gay cabinet extremity ( Pete Buttigieg as transport secretary)and the first African American Pentagon chief ( Gen. Lloyd Austin ) . Still he is under insistency " from all sides"as The New York Times put it , to do even more in condition of representation .
As far as policy , here are some of the things Biden has say he will do in his first 100 days [ sources : Moore , Franck ]
As part of his $ 1.9 trillion COVID-19 help package , Biden want to give direct payments of $ 1,400 to most Americans , on top of the $ 600 that was lately approve . He also wants to continue the moratorium on evictions as well as the federal unemployment benefit . He ’d also care billions to go to body politic and local government help , COVID examination and vaccine program . Increasing the Union minimum wage to $ 15 per hr is also part of the package .
Whether he can deliver on these promises — or at least some of them — remains to be seen . Biden , who incline as a moderate , will be caught between his more broad party members who want him to take more progressive positions in areas like the environment and immigration , and conservative member of the Republican Party who may seek to block him as much as potential .
